I am so grateful to Ciaran Corr in this conversation for his open, fearless and insightful questions.
Listen to the audio recording:
The transcript:
The Voice of Non-Duality: Let us breathe a little moment to synchronise all of our hearts, from this side and from yours. You relax deeply into the knowing that the next breath is bringing to you everything that you need and that you require. Yes, you can feel the whole physiology relax into this knowingness that you are always being looked after. You are always being seen to. You are always being cared for. And if we told you that you are actually being cared for by yourself, you would find that a little difficult to believe, a little difficult to comprehend. For you have been taught and taught truly, to imagine that everything that you need, want, desire, require comes from outside yourself. We are here to break in pieces this illusion.
For everything that comes your way is a gift from you to you. It is a desire that is born of your initial desire … to experience the totality of yourself. This experiencing of the totality of yourself, leads you into such a complex, vast and intricate journey into the world of emotion. Some emotions you prefer over others and yet, we would tell you that before you even raised your hand to come to this world, this Earth, you professed your undying enthusiasm to experience every emotion, for that is what truly attracted you to this reality, for you knew that that would be the most intense learning that you could receive to expand your soul. And so, you live in a world of emotion that sometimes has you tied up but, as you navigate your way forwards, the undoing of this entanglement reveals so much of you to you.
And sometimes the emotions, that you would consider to be the ones that you would rather avoid, are the very ones that reveal the most information to your soul. When we talk of your soul, we mean that part of you that bridges your spirit and your body and desires, above all, this soul place of yours, to expand, expand, expand into freedom. It desires to let go and move through the entanglements so that it can discover afresh its own freedom, freedom. And, in this way, your emotions play an extremely important role, for they indicate to you quite clearly when you are in entanglement and when you have moved through to freedom. The more you recognise this process, the more comfortable you become with this form of contraction into the entanglement, where you become completely involved in the whole drama until you finally have had enough of the learning and you expand once again into a new plateau of learning from which you have a new vision upon and over the world.
Can you see that it is very similar to the pattern of your breathing, where you take the inbreath into the full expansive moment and you contract somewhat to expel the air? It is similar in this rhythm of expansion and contraction. The ocean does the same by cresting at the top of the wave which then crashes upon the shore and recedes once again into its vastness. So, can you see that there is a natural rhythm to it all? You are always receding into your vastness, moving with more consciousness into the vastness of you. Letting go, what is no longer needed.
Wonderful, we welcome your questions.
Ciaran: Thank you for that. And an interesting insight into the diamond contained within the emotions that I choose to avoid. I had one question coming into today, which was, how can I make love my default all the time, and particularly to myself first?
The Voice of Non-Duality: We shall be a little facetious and tell you that you just do. You just make the decision to do so. And you make the decision over and over and over again with each crashing wave upon the shore. You see, the ocean is vast but you, dear one, are even vaster for you are connected to infinity and so, we would ask you what could possibly be outside infinity? So, if you are everything, how can there be anything that you cannot accept? The issue, we would see, is that too often you, and we mean all, equate love with only what feels good and so, when you desire to love there is an undercurrent of desire for only good and acceptable things in your life. Whereas, when you see yourself as an infinite being of love, such as you would desire for your God to be, then everything, no matter how it presents itself, how it looks, how it behaves, how it makes you feel, is acceptable because it is an intricate and perfect part of all creation.
So, in practical terms, to be fully in love at all times requires you delving into the ocean, the vastness, the void of no thing, no judgement, no positionality, no aversion, no attraction; simply being with it all, in awe of it all, in respect of it all and in delight of it all.
Ciaran: Whether it feels good or not?
The Voice of Non-Duality: Whether it feels good or not? Mmmm. Yes, for when you fully embrace the feeling element of it all, it comes to no thing. It is dissolved into your vastness. It dissipates into the vastness of you that is peaceful and tranquil. If you play with this, you will notice that this top part of you, this area around your chest is an area of reaction. It will have its likes and its dislikes, its aversions and its attractions but deeper down truly in the bottom of your belly, you will notice that there is a place of constancy, a place of tranquility that can observe the aversions, diversions, dislikes, the likes, the passions, the desires. But there shall always be this constant place within you that is a place of neutrality.
But when we use the term `no thing`, we do not mean nothing. We mean a place of space, a void in which there is creative power. You will notice, by observing your attractions or your dislikes, that it belongs to a cerebral part of your body whereas this neutrality, this vastness, this depth, this `no thing`, this place of non-judgment, of no criticism, of just beingness is consistently there. This place of `no thing` is where you find deep, deep inner peace. It is out of this place that your constant sense of well-being gets to be honed and fully adopted. Are we clear?
Ciaran: Yes, I would associate that part of my body as the Dan Tien, about three or four fingers below the belly button, where I bring my awareness in Tai Chi to. That place that is always still.
The Voice of Non-Duality: Yes, we love this word `stillness`. But can you hear our dilemma? Because each of the words that we are using to describe this place are somewhat static and this is not a place of stasis. It is a place of movement and creation and potency and depth and beauty, for it is a place of All That Is, a place of everything, out of which this part; your head and the top part of your body is like a place of watching but also drama-making. It is like the making of the film is coming through this superior part of your physical body and yet there is this great depth within that receives all the information, that observes all the information and that absorbs all the information that you are witnessing, that you are partaking in, that you are sometimes creating, that you are, should we say, always creating. One is not better than the other, can you see that also?
For, it is just a form of playing-out. It is like this lower part of your being, your Dan Tien, is like a deep flowing river. And yet there are little droplets and big splashes and waves that emerge from this great deep river. And yet they belong to the deep river and at the same time are expressing themselves in their own particular way. But every experience from this droplet of water, that has arisen from that deep running river, is giving its own expression, is enjoying its own expression, is partaking in its own expression, and watching itself express. And so, we would see this droplet of water as being this mind part of your being that is separating itself momentarily from the deep running river, but is still part of it and will rejoin it.
So, can you see, in that respect, that one is not better than the other? And so, to desire to be only love is in itself a denial of all that you are.
For you are not anything else but love. So, to desire to go towards love means that you have already decided that there are certain aspects of life, of your life, of others’ lives that are not of the infinite love.
Ciaran: I see that and that depends on whether I am in separation or not.
The Voice of Non-Duality: Well, this is the conundrum for even when you think that you are in separation, you are not.
Ciaran: Yes (laughing).
The Voice of Non-Duality: So, all that you are doing, is thinking that you are in separation, yes?
Ciaran: Yes.
The Voice of Non-Duality: So, the only real issue that you have is with a thought?
Ciaran:…and the solution is not to think?
The Voice of Non-Duality: Hmm.
Ciaran: to be in that place?
The Voice of Non-Duality: …to absorb that thought with humour and with delight, for the long and deep flowing river does not chastise the droplets of the river for jumping up…
Ciaran: Yes.
The Voice of Non-Duality: … with all of the kinetic energy that comes from this fast flowing river. Nor can you chastise the thought from arising in your mind.
Ciaran: Yes.
The Voice of Non-Duality: So, you look at the thought and you delight that some form of kinetic energy has brought it to your mind, and you look at it kindly and allow it to descend back, when it is ready, into the deep flowing river. So, can you see you always have the choice between looking at the vast flowing river and feeling that you are part of it or you have the choice to look at the droplet and feel that you are part of it? It is always your choice.
Ciaran: I see that.
The Voice of Non-Duality: And it is all good. So, if we were to interpret that into your daily life, you can see all activity as choice.
Ciaran: Yes.
The Voice of Non-Duality: And everyone is choosing. They are all choosing. You are all choosing the experience. Yes. So, can you also see that from there, there can be no judgment? When you do witness things that you find troubling, upsetting, it is because you are feeling like they are being done to you or if they could be done to you, you are imagining what that would be like. This is your empathy at play. So, when you have this experience, bring that experience into that deep running river and embrace it into the vastness of you. What is happening, more often than not, is that, as humans, you are tightening up at the unpleasantness of what you are witnessing, which we can understand completely for many of you are not used to seeing such violence, such injustice.
But you are such a vast being that even these experiences can come into your deep flowing river and find a home there; a place of resolution. And in doing so, you do not have the reaction that comes from your chest area, that leaves you feeling vulnerable, that leaves you feeling upset and troubled for you know that you have brought it down, down into your deep river of nothingness where it shall just dissolve into this void, that is the void of love.
We have only just introduced this idea that it is a void of love because can you see, more often than not, love is used in opposition rather than in a form of neutrality?
Ciaran: Yes.
The Voice of Non-Duality: You place love in opposition to evil but love is not in opposition. Love is a force of the void, of neutrality, of no place, of no thing; therein lies its exponential potency. Yes.
Ciaran: An unqualified acceptance of everything?
The Voice of Non-Duality: Acceptance infers a lack of empowerment, as if you just have to accept it as it is.
Ciaran: (laughing) Yeah?
The Voice of Non-Duality: No, love is a void of creation. So, you take it in, embrace it fully, for you know the power of love to love, to resolve, to bring well being.
Ciaran: Very different to acceptance, yes.
The Voice of Non-Duality: Yes, yes, yes. The acceptance has religious overtones.
Ciaran: We will have to avoid that.
The Voice of Non-Duality: Yes, yes, yes. Only because, and this is our difficulty with the language because if we are to use such terminology as `no thing` and nothing, you tend to think that you are disappearing into `no thing` and nothing which is not the case. It is not the case that you just have to lie back and accept it all, as it is, `rotten to the core`. No, it is that you are, each one of you, a powerful, powerful source of love. This love is not in opposition to anything. It is `the` power of the universe. It contains within it all power to embrace, absolve, resolve, resurrect and love without condition, without limitation. That is the power of the river of love that pours through you, that you are.
So, rather than desire to emanate only loving sweet thoughts, to be kindly at every moment and turn-around, instead know simply that this deep flowing river within you has the capacity to embrace everything and all things and to give life to new creation, new thoughts and new things. In many ways it is the definition of the alchemist which has great creative power, great power of resolve, renewal, reconstruction. That is who you are. You stand on this Earth with your both feet firmly rooted in the soil of the earth, your head reaching up to the skies. You are of the earth. You are also this bridge between the earth and the skies.
We would say that if you are to really feel love, embrace everything and everyone on this planet into the love that you are.
Practise that, embracing even the ones that you have been taught to fear and hate into the love that you are.
Thank you dear one. Thank you.
Ciaran: Thank you for such a wonderful reply.
The Voice of Non-Duality: You are embraced.
Ciaran: As you are too. Thank you.
PLEASE NOTE:
The content of this audio is for educational and informational purposes only. The content should not be used for the diagnosis or treatment of any condition or disease. No express or implied guarantee of results is made. Participating in any meditation may come with a certain level of risk and each person’s body response to these various activities cannot be predicted with complete accuracy. If you are currently being treated by a doctor or other healthcare practitioner, or have been diagnosed with any condition or disease, please consult with that provider prior to changing, modifying, or taking part in any treatment programme, including meditation work. Jane-Louise Kelly expressly disclaims any liability of any kind or nature relating to any person’s use of the content.
© 2022, Jane-Louise Kelly. All Rights Reserved www.jane-louisekelly.com