A Spiritually Enlightening Online Magazine. March's Theme: "Movement"
Volume 3 Issue 3 ISSN# 1708-3265

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Illuminations Aleesha Stephenson Dragon's Daughter Part Four Jennifer Monaghan What Animals Teach Us About Movement Jean Hofve, DVM Movement David Reber Yoga and the Strengths of Flexibility Syl Carson WAKE UP! Martin Avery Air, Not as Anonymous As We Think! David Suzuki PhD Crystals Rock Your World Judith Lukomski Wiccan Voices Anne Ellis Lifetalks Dawn Baumann Brunke Walk Your Talk Aleesha Stephenson Meditate a Moment Featuring: Aleesha Stephenson Technically Tarot Jeannette Roth Tales of a Country Vet Dr. Bruce Burton DVM Sacred Geometry Oracle Francene Hart Becoming a Vibrant Human Being - DVD Carol Tuttle with Syl Carson Witch's Book of Dreams Karri Allrich Vibrational Medicine Richard Gerber, M.D. Cards of Alchemy Raymond Buckland Tarot Polski Anna Ligero

Faith is all about healing, for me, these days. The greatest healer, they say, is the one who heals himself. I'm working on that. I believe I'm co-evolving with higher powers and things are getting better and better. Recently, I heard Deepak Chopra quote Buddha, saying, "I don't believe in belief." He also said, "The problem with religions is that they all suppress desire. -- And you know what happens to what we suppress: It gets stronger and stronger."

I heard Deepak Chopra speaking at the Omega Holistic Institute, near Woodstock, north of New York City, last summer.

Omega is North America's largest holistic learning center, with over 20,000 participants per year at conferences led by spiritual gurus such as Marianne Williamson, Maya Angelou, and Margot Anand, as well as Deepak Chopra.

It is a spiritual retreat centre like a summer camp for grown-ups who want to eat whole foods, breathe deeply, and rub shoulders with marvelous artists, therapists, counselors, and spiritual teachers from Tibet and India as well as across the USA. Pema Chodrin visits, to lecture or run workshops, traveling from her monastery on the tip of Cape Breton, in Canada.

It had been a long time since I'd been there.

I went to a workshop with Margot Anand at Omega the summer before last. Margot Anand inspired us to explore tantric healing with exercises designed to awaken your ecstatic responses and lead you to everyday ecstasy.

One technique Margot Anand recommends for realizing we are ecstatic is to write about the last time you felt ecstatic, and the time before that, and so on. After you realize you have been ecstatic, you anchor it in your body, so you can access it easily. Before too long, you will feel ecstatic as the poet Rumi in love with a whirling dervish.

The last time I felt ecstatic, I was at Omega, listening to Deepak Chopra come to the climax of his three day lecture based on his new book, The Book Of Secrets: Unlocking The Hidden Dimensions of Your Life. He also covered some familiar ground for those who had read The Path To Love: Renewing The Power Of Spirit In Your Life and Ageless Body, Timeless Mind: The Quantum Alternative To Growing Old. He started with an introduction to quantum mechanics and ended with an introduction to his new book, Peace Is The Way.

I might have been imagining it, but I thought Deepak Chopra was dropping hints about his desire to run for the U.S.A. Presidency. Everybody kept asking him about it. "How will we find the ideal candidate for the Democratic party?" they wanted to know. He said, "Don't worry about who will be the Democratic candidate for the presidency of the United States. The right person will appear at the right time as the perfect expression of our collective unconscious."

He also said,"Don't worry about sleeping terrorist cells," referring to recent statements by President George W. Bush. "We need to wake up the peaceful cells."

His call to action felt like the start of a grassroots campaign. "Go to your community and start an 'Imaginal Cell'," he said. "Wake up the Imaginal Cells and then start making connections between the cells."

He told the group about imaginal cells during his lecture. "Imaginal cells are the last living cells in a caterpillar that transform it into a butterfly," Chopra told his audience. "A biologist would say it is like dropping off your bicycle at a repair shopping and later picking up a jet airplane. That's how radical it is for a caterpillar to grow wings and fly. Now we are seeing imaginal Cells all over. Omega is one. When imaginal cells cluster and communicate, that's when radical things happen."

The Omega Bookstore sold bumper stickers saying "America Needs A Buddhist President". That is also the title of a new book by Brett Bevell, a program director for the Omega Conference Center in Rhinebeck, N.Y..

Chopra does not call himself a Buddhist but the American Buddhist Congress gave him their Bodhi Award two years ago. "While he may not call himself a Buddhist, through his many books, personal appearances and activities, he reflects the basic Buddhist principals of loving kindness and compassion," the president of the American Buddhist Congress said when he awarded Chopra the Bodhi.

Chopra's newest book, Peace Is the Way: Bringing War And Violence To An End, is his most political. The title alludes to the famous quote by Mahatma Gandhi: "There is no way to Peace. Peace is the way."

"Here in America, the FBI has helped break up terrorist cells and terrorist financing networks in California, in Oregon, Illinois, North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Florida, and other states," President Bush was quoted in a press release issued by the office of the press secretary after the president addressed the FBI Academy.

"Our nation has no greater mission than stopping the terrorists from launching new and more deadly attacks. And whether you're fighting the terrorists in Afghanistan or Iraq, or routing out terrorists here at home, America is counting on you to stop them," the President was quoted as saying in the press release.

At Omega, Deepak Chopra said, "Over 130,000 people have been killed in Afghanistan and it has been proven that there was no connection between that country and the attacks on America which have come to be known as 911. America had the sympathy of the world, after the attacks. Everyone was with us. We should have called on the world for help and support. Instead, the decision was made to take action, to declare war on terrorism. We should have done nothing. America would have received so much compassion and respect around the world."

The other inspiration Chopra left us with was all about meditating. He encouraged everyone to contemplate their soul profile and their list of things they wanted to manifest, and then meditate for twenty minutes every day, in the morning and at sunset. He recommended a simple mantra for the daily meditation. Repeat "I am" while you sit in a meditative position, the soles of your feet touching, right hand resting in the left hand, thumbs touching, the tip of your tongue touching the roof of your mouth, just behind your front teeth, breathing deeply, listening to primordial music, aligning the chakras.

"I've been meditating like this for over thirty years," he said, "and my life has been a breeze."

The summer before, Margot Anand led the participants in her workshop through an exercise designed to open the chakra flute, linking the seven main portals of your subtle energy system, from root to crown.

Studying Reiki and Quantum Touch, after years of doing tai chi and qi kung, I learned about the eighth chakra, just underground, and the three chakras above your head. Studying yoga, I learned about the high heart chakra, as well as the minor chakras in your hands and feet.

Studying with Janet Amare, at the Centre for Vibrational Learning, near Toronto, I learned a lot about channeling, as well as past life work and future healing, and how to open a coning to invite in the angels, devas, and other higher powers, to help you with your meditation and manifesting.

So, there you have it, that's what I believe, these days. We're all co-evolving with higher powers. And the better it gets, the better it gets.

Martin Avery, B.A., B.Ed., M.F.A., A.Q. Drama, CISH, Reiki Master, Quantum-Touch Practitioner, of Soul Guides & Spirit Mates. He is an author, educator, and healer. An amateur gardener and cook but a professional writer, photographer, and workshop facilitator. He's also behind The Great Canadian Winter Novel Marathon in February. Feel free to visit his website.

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