The Ishaya Foundation Newsletter - May 2010 Expansion and Contraction The first thing we learn in Ascension, as we are beginning to use the Ascension Attitude, is that we are never to force it or even try to hold it in the mind. An effortless back and forth movement between thoughts and Ascension Attitudes very gently leads us to deeper levels of thinking and more refined perceptions of reality. There is no control or effort that is applied to this simple ebb and flow. It is actually a much faster way to bring forth the Ascendant as the foundation of our experiences than anything else we can do. Expanding our awareness just a bit beyond our horizon of the known and then coming back creates stability. Everything in life is refined in this simple way. We do eyes closed Ascending and expand our awareness in the Ascendant without the senses being involved; and then we Ascend with our eyes open in activity, seemingly contracting from the focused inward movement. And yet this is exactly what opens the reality of the Ascendant as the underlying foundation of everything. It is both on the inside and on the outside shining its light always. When Praise, Gratitude or Love is the beginning thought of each moment then the rest naturally unfolds according to the natural laws of the Ascending currents. Without the self-judgmental patterns we learn to flow with the experiences as they are. Not as we wish them to be or are afraid of them to be, but simply accepting them innocently the way we are having them. Nataraja Ishaya The rate of expansion The typical result of five to eight years of regularly practiced Ascension is that Perpetual Consciousness dawns in any nervous system, regardless how stressed it was at the outset. This ultimately depends on four factors: 1) How regular the individual is with her or his practice: Just as it takes a certain acceleration to escape the pull of gravity – 9.8 meters per second squared, it takes a certain acceleration of progress to escape from the old destructive behavior patterns. This is most easily accomplished by one-pointed dedication to the regularity of the practice. 2) How much stress there is in the nervous system at the beginning of the practice: Some people are a whole lot more stressed than others due to excessive and imbalanced behavior patterns throughout their lives. Age is a factor in this; the general rule being that the longer the life the more stressed the body. 3) How much stress the individual is adding to her or his nervous system every day. Some lifestyles are more stressful than others. Regardless how efficient a filtering system, if the pond is being filled by more mud and toxic waste every day than can be removed, it will continue to decrease in quality. 4) How badly the individual wants to be free from her or his self-destructive behavior patterns: The more intense the zeal for change, the faster the change will occur. This is true of anything, of course. The more one practices the piano, the faster one learns to play the piano. But all things considered, the typical average is five to eight years. It is a little surprising that it takes even this long. Where is there to go, after all? The Ascendant is already inside everyone. The reason it takes some time is simply that we are so deeply conditioned by our habitual modes of thinking, seeing and acting. Old habits tend to die hard. MSI, Ascension! Peaks and Valleys Anyone who has encountered the self-improvement world has heard the term “peaks and valleys”. This term is used to describe the emotional highs and lows that humans encounter throughout their lives. Our favorite experiences come from the highs or the peaks in our lives. We are taught that the lows are undesirable and should be avoided at any cost. A great deal of our energy is spent trying to avoid any “bad” or “negative” experience. In Ascension we are taught that no matter what our subjective experience, either good or bad, we continue to introduce the Ascension Attitudes. The reason for this is that both the peaks and the valleys are stressful to the nervous system. The body does not judge between the “good” feelings or the “bad” ones. Both cause stress and both types of stresses need to be healed or released from the body. By continually choosing to introduce the Ascension Attitudes no matter what the subjective experience, we cultivate the lifestyle of the Enlightened. An Enlightened master does not ride the highs and lows of life. A birth is equal to a death in the eyes of the enlightened. The sage finds Praise, Gratitude and Love in any and all situations. This does not mean they do not experience the full range of the human emotions. Nor does it mean they are always cheery and upbeat as most of the world would like us to believe. What it means is that no matter what life brings, the Enlightened sees the perfection in it - with appreciation - and experiences the Infinite Force for Good that is within all. We create our future ahead of us. By simply using the tools provided for us by the Enlightened, the Ascension Attitudes, everything in life improves. All that is required of us is to bring these Ascension Attitudes into every experience we are having. We don’t need to work to come up with something “positive” or “happy” to think about the situation. We do not need to do anything to change the particular experience at all. Instead, we simply choose to bring Praise, Gratitude and Love into the experience. Life quickly begins to change for the better when we accept the totality of our experience. Soon, we find that instead of experiencing the vicious cycle of seeking the peaks and avoiding the valleys we realize that we are stable and secure throughout all of the experiences of life. The next time we have one of those “negative” experiences or emotions, we can simply choose for an Ascension Attitude. Soon we will naturally find that these emotions or experiences become just as valuable to us as the “positive” ones. They both give us the opportunity Free Introductory Lecture May 12 at 7 pm East West Bookshop Seattle, WA May 17 at 5pm Vancouver, WA Celestial Awakenings May 18 at 7pm Vancouver, WA May 26 at 7pm Quadra Island, BC Seascape Resort May 27 at 7pm Campbell River, BC Still Water Books & Art First Sphere Weekend Retreat May 7 - 9 Saint James, MO First Sphere Weekend Apr 30 - May 2 Victoria, BC May 7 – 9 Leppäjärvi, Finland finland@theishayafoundation.eu May 13 - 15 Orem, Utah May 14 - 16 Seattle, WA Helsinki, Finland finland@theishayafoundation.eu Landshut, Germany info@ishayafoundation.eu May 21 - 23 Vancouver, WA Kangasala, Finland finland@theishayafoundation.eu Corning, NY Basel, Switzerland info@theishayafoundation.eu May 28 - 30 Quadra Island, BC Advanced Weekend May 8 - 9 Canada Advanced Meeting May 1 at 7 pm Victoria, BC May 8 at 7 pm Saint James, MO May 15 at 7 pm Seattle, WA May 20 at 7 pm Salem, OR May 22 at 7 pm Vancouver, WA Retreats Sooke, BC Jun 20 - 23 Registration Closes May 20 Big Rapids, MI Aug 17 - 25 Registration Closes June 30th Questions about a course? contact@theishayafoundation.org 1-888-474-2921 For full course schedule click here. to rise above the duality of the ego. Both experiences provide us with the opportunity to reclaim our natural birth right, Full Human Consciousness. Jyoti Ishaya Question & Answer The question "what do you compromise" sounds confusing to me. In my point of view, compromise is not a bad thing at all. As the level of my consciousness is not well "expanded", I always think that what I see is from a very narrow point of view. I cannot see the whole picture and I am not right all the time. So when life does not give me what I want as it happens always, I learn to compromise. Yes this is what the waking state mind does from its limited point of reference. It sees itself as unable to control or master events of experience because it does not know how it is connected to these events and therefore does not know how it creates experience. From this level of consciousness we learn to accept compromise as a way of getting along in a world that is out of control and separate from us. We learn to accept ourselves as being victimized to circumstance and to suffer whatever consequence may come along at the expense of happiness and freedom of being. These thoughts however are programs handed down from our parents and from societal beliefs; the same kind of beliefs that create superstitious ideas based on lack of knowledge and experience of the Self and how to create consciously rather than to live with and subject to unconscious programs of belief. Liberation from this way of life is to awaken to the inherent abilities of the Self and to be cognizant of reality as it unfolds by our very thoughts and the attention we give to our beliefs. "Repent," or as it is translated from its original meaning (to change the mind) means to become more intelligent and expanded in the experience of reality so that life begins to change along with the way you have newly experienced expanded reality, rather than to continue to live from superstition and limitation. If a child is afraid of the dark and thinks there is something that lives in the dark, and as a result lives in terror, the experience of turning on the light to see what was not known changes the way the child thinks and experiences what was once darkness and is now light. Similarly if one has a narrow point of view and one knows they have a narrow point of view; in light of a more expanded experience of reality to continue to live from a narrow point of view would be a compromise. Whenever we know we are giving up something that is expanding for something that contracts our experience of ourselves we compromise. This is not the same as conscious sacrifice which is written about in scripture. Conscious sacrifice is to give up what does not serve us in favor of something that does. Belief from the narrow point of view of the ego is not very expanding because it focuses on relative happiness and it struggles to find it in and amongst the belief that relative sacrifice is necessary to achieve it. The ego believes that with happiness one must always accept sadness and suffering, but this is an illusion of the ego and not the Truth absolute. The ideal relationship is when two come together to focus on expansion of each other’s growth in consciousness rather than snippets of happiness mixed in with arduous responsibilities that are the "for worse" part of compromise. From an unenlightened perspective a woman may suffer the consequence of physical abuse at the hands of a controlling husband for the sake of preserving the marriage and the lack of self worth she feels for herself. This is actually happening in more and more relationships and fortunately for most the abuse is cut short by severing the relationship. But more often than not the abuse that is created in marriages is psychological and turned inside by the person suffering the abuse rather than from the partner. As two become more distant from each other because of differences in ideals, staying together becomes a challenge or responsibility because of duty or social mores. Then what happens is the person who compromises reinforces the idea that happiness is an illusion and compromise is the greater reality. Love becomes conditioned by circumstance and rather than bringing joy to both couples is shadowed in the beliefs of self sacrifice, for the greater good of responsibility. Ideally there are always two souls who match each other and when the time is right in ones evolution they will find each other without much effort. Until then what attracts two people together are circumstances that are either from the limited senses, lust, security of which can be either financial or even psychologically driven, and even in some societal customs arranged by the parents. In order to understand compromise one must become familiar with the types of thoughts and how they expand and contract us, as well as to be familiar with expansion of consciousness. Joseph Campbell Innocence is the key in the inward march of the mind. Any kind of prejudicing the mind with an expectation of a certain kind of experience only gets us in the way of what is naturally happening. We can think of life as a river that is naturally flowing toward the ocean. There is nothing that is needed for it to keep flowing between the river banks. It just happens. Ascension Attitudes help to relax our mind and our body from the grip of fear and control into letting go into the flow of the current of life. In this practice less is more. The less we try do and the more that we let the process of thinking the Ascension Attitudes be the center of our focus, the more quickly the beneficial results will overtake our life. used the phrase "Follow your Bliss." To the new age waking state mind this often means follow every thought and idea that brings pleasure to the senses and increases relative happiness. To some extent this leads to a very enjoyable life but not always to the conscious awareness of reality and the Greater Self. If the senses are continually driven outward into experience, the connection to the Self atrophies. If the senses are not taken inward, relative choices of sense oriented happiness become addictive, and as the feelings of happiness fade in one experience, the need to find it again in another drives the mind toward constant distraction from the Self. In reality this is a compromise of Truth, for the illusions of ego and the need to fill one’s self with a sense of being from moods created from the outside. Whether we are in a relationship or not, this drive to find fulfillment from the outside lowers our ability to love from spirit and to give from the spirit. We will love ourselves and others with objects of attachment and desire, and from measured values that we attach to ourselves and our loved ones. We think that our love has meaning with objects and measures gauged by our own accepted standard of personal self worth. A lover gives his or her partner a gift to express love, we give our children toys to express our love and without connecting to each other we continue our relationships by passing objects of worth to show what we think love is through the value we place on the gift and the person we are giving the gift to. As superstitious and ignorant as this sounds it is the way a lot of people live. What Joseph Campbell meant by the words "Follow your Bliss" was to follow those thoughts and ideas which expand the intellect and the body permanently rather than temporarily, thoughts and actions that expand our awareness of ourselves and of consciousness itself. Loving unconditionally from the non-compromising spirit does not spare the feelings of the ego but from wisdom leads to liberation of the soul. It frees the mind and body from attachments to narrow vision and conditions of love that are lived from limited awareness of reality. The wisdom of non-compromise is anchored in the experience of the absolute rather than in the experience of narrow vision of the ego. So compromise is not always recognized by the ego and what the ego recognizes as compromise is seen as ignorance from the level of higher states of consciousness. Mahadeva Ishaya ------------ We welcome any questions that you readers may have concerning the practice of Ascension so that they can be addressed here as part of the newsletter. You can email your questions to contact@theishayafoundation.org with the title ” Question & Answer”. If you wish to participate in an online dialog about Ascension, we invite you to join teachers on the Ishaya Foundation Bulletin Board. Of course you can call or email us at any time for a more immediate personal response. “Love one another as I have loved you” From my experiences growing up in a strict religious family, it seems that the contractions of dogma and how to act greatly outweighed the expansions of unconditional love. Yet there were those moments, like when I heard the gospel of John, the Apostle that Jesus loved, and listened to Christ’s message of “I give you a new commandment, Love one another as I have loved you”, and it so resonated with my very core that it expanded my consciousness in a realization that there actually is something different. Then later, alone in my thoughts, I would wonder why those words were not my daily experience. There were so many rules and conditions and ways on how to act and what to think and how to live, many of which were beyond my heart’s desire to simply live life joyfully and without any inhibitions. The god I prayed to seemed like such an uncaring one; one who did not have time to listen and help me out. Eventually this innate longing for love led me to Ascension and a knowing of having come Home. Again, there was the expansion, and then again later the contraction. But I had learned of a way, a tool that I can use by choice to experience the expansion more and more. It is said that you can’t eat an elephant with one bite. The same holds true for consciousness. Our nervous systems cannot handle full awakening all at once. It takes the expansion of the awareness to experience something greater. Because the nervous system still has stress in it and the physical body still has its denseness, it is necessary to come back into it, but now with a greater awareness experienced. This results in a stabilizing effect that is more than we realized before. It becomes a more permanent step that is beyond the previous boundaries. Like a balloon that we blow up; as the air is let out the balloon remains bigger and more flexible than it was before, never again to revert back to its previous size. As we continually use the tool of Ascension, the more the nervous system naturally clears out the stresses and the more our consciousness expands in Praise, Gratitude, Love and Compassion. Life truly becomes more Joyful. Nandisvara Ishaya Consider the Lilies A wise, infinitely loving Teacher is quoted as having said,” Consider the lilies and how they grow”. The lily shows us from its own nature about growth and we find it takes both expansion and contraction to fulfill its life cycle. A lily is grown from bulbs. All we have to do is plant it, water it, give it a place with sunlight and allow it the room to grow. From each small start a miracle occurs as it expands and begins its natural cycle involving the development of roots, leaves and then flowers. After this, the lily reaches a natural part of its life of contraction--pulling the energy from the leaves back inward to be used to build more bulbils. It happens naturally. The only thing we have to do is not to interfere with what is naturally happening. The leaves must be allowed to continue to grow- without the flowers- for the energy to be there in the plant for new bulb growth. The plant knows how to do this. It is innate to its nature. We have times in our lives that we experience expansion. Expansion of consciousness is what Ascension is all about. When we drop our limiting thoughts and beliefs about ourselves or the world, our perception shifts and we become freer. The release of these limits occurs easily as we Ascend, often without our knowing at a thinking level what has happened. We just know we are freer. We are paying attention to what is Real by using these Attitudes and that changes our Reality from the inside. We will also have times in our lives when we experience contraction. This may seem “not as fun, not as good”, but this view point can be shifted easily as we accept what is happening as a part of the natural flow of our nervous system clearing-- moving stress out of the way so that our awareness of the connection to the Infinite is no longer blocked. This natural flow of expansion and contraction clears the pipes, allowing the energy of life to fuel new creativity and deeper consciousness. I don’t have to believe that a lily will come from the lily bulb for it to grow. It will grow a lily if properly tended. In a similar way, I don’t have to believe in the Ascension Attitudes for them to work. No matter what the temporary experience, the seed thoughts of the Ascension Attitudes will grow a new way of looking at and living life. One based on Praise, Gratitude, Love and Compassion. All I have to do is begin and get out of the way. Mayasakti Ishaya What's new? To see the newly designed covers of the Ascension! and Enlightenment books, go to the top of this page and click on Home, and then What’s New. The books also have new formats and lay-flat bindings. Some of the older books still available can now be purchased for $1 each plus shipping. If you would like your local bookstore to carry MSI’s books, have them connect with our publishing arm at www.theishayafoundationpublishing.org. Our Websites The Ishaya Foundation http://www.theishayafoundation.org Hong Kong website http://www.theishayafoundation.asia European website http://www.theishayafoundation.eu ------------------------------------------------- This is the 56th edition of the Ishaya Foundation newsletter. If you wish to unsubscribe please email mailinglist@theishayatradition.org. To contact us, please email contact@theishayafoundation.org or phone 1-888-ISHAYA1