From: cmdupont@sympatico.ca
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 2010 14:22:46 -0500

Dear friends,

I hope this finds you happy and well.

Welcoming 2010

New Year's often brings resolutions for many of us ... while there is value in resolutions I know of one intention that takes care of everything: to know your Self. When we are conscious of our true nature we automatically have access to awakened values that are inherent to spirt: truth, unity, peace, gratitude, love, healthy discipline, compassion, freedom. From this place it's effortless to make choices in all areas of life that are supportive of both the body and the soul's path.

Below you will find a recent article I wrote for www.naturallysavvy.com  called the Nature of Awareness.

Movement for health

Before I began to study yoga, I taught and acquired a black belt in the Nia Technique, a holistic movement form. Having immersed myself in yoga for about 6 years I have felt myself being drawn back to the freedom, expression and creativity of what I call Spontaneous Meditative Movement. While yoga is structured, logical, precise, and linear, Spontaneous Meditative Movement is free, playful, expressive and sensual. I have been delighted to rediscover its ability to access and move emotional energy and touch a deep level of truth within. I will be incorporating Spontaneous Meditative Movement in some of my classes, workshops and retreats and hope you will join me. It will be highlighted in my Friday morning home studio class ClearBeing Flow ... more details below...

Here are some offerings for 2010:

·         Tuesdays at Yoga Plus Richmond Hill. 7 to 8.30 pm Hatha Flow followed by Community Meditation from 8.30 to 9 pm (no charge). see www.yogaplustoronto.com

·         NEW Fridays at my home studio. ClearBeing Flow: a combination of Energy Awareness, Meditation, Yoga and Spontaneous Meditative Movement for deep healing. All levels are welcome. $15/class or $12/class if you sign up for the series.January 8 - March 26. Please let me know if you'll be joining me as spaces are limited.

·         Sundays at my home studio. Community Meditation from 8 to 8.45 am (no charge), followed by Hatha Flow from 9 to 10.30 am. All levels are welcome. $15/class or $12/class for the series. January 10 - March 28. Please let me know if you'll be joining me as spaces are limited.

·         There is 1 spot left in the Energy Medicine weekend intensive from January 15th from 6.30 -9.30 pm, January 16th from 10 am to 5 pm, and January 17th from 11 am to 5 pm.$270. Please e-mail for more information.

Best wishes all-ways,

Caroline

The Nature of Awareness

If meditation could be summarized in one brief sentence it would be “rest as awareness”. Meditation is not something that we do, it’s what we are, which is pure awareness. A practice allows us to access and enjoy our true nature without the usual distractions of activity, thoughts, sounds, emotions, sensations, etc.

What is awareness? For one thing, it’s the only aspect of our being that never changes. The very same awareness that is looking through your eyes right now has been peaking through your ever changing body and mind from the day you were born. It has no form, no gender, no age, no social status, no religion, position, beliefs, etc. It has no opinion about your current circumstances, and not the slightest interest in categorizing your experiences as good or bad.  You won’t find it anywhere inside yourself, yet it seems to be everywhere. It’s spacious and free, unborn and undying. 

How do we access awareness? The more we try, the further away we seem to get, so trying to create the experience of awareness is not the answer. Besides, awareness is not an experience, it just is, and always is. Since awareness is always present behind and within all of the details of each moment, we simply need to stop giving our attention to the never ending changing details of each moment, including thought, circumstances, emotions, sensations. Simple enough… but not easy.

Try these approaches in your practice and see if you can get the ‘feel’ of awareness:

·         Remind yourself as you sit down to meditate that awareness is already present. No effort is required. In fact, the less effort the better. Any effort to create awareness often takes us in the opposite direction.

·         Allow everything to be as it is. Let thought, sensation, emotion, and sound be. Completely let go of control. When we are trying to control the details that are coming up each moment our focus gets much narrower. When we allow everything to be as it is, our perspective gets broader and more expansive which are qualities of awareness.

·         Ask yourself what is noticing thought? What is noticing sensation? Sound? Experience the answer to these questions as a feeling, a spacious presence within which the details are being played out.

Remember that although it would seem very appealing to ‘rest as awareness’, it’s not actually good news for the ego, which is what most of us operate through in the world. The ego is the conditioned self that has been created as a way to make us feel safe (albeit temporarily) in the world and to prevent us from feeling painful emotions. Much mental and physical energy is tied up in maintaining the ego, and it will do all that it can to preserve itself. Ego cannot survive in the light of awareness and this can feel threatening. As ego dissolves, many of the painful emotions that it has been constructed around will be dislodged and rise to the surface to be seen and released. Rest assured, awareness is the most powerful solvent for these emotional energies. It may take some time to develop a tolerance to feeling energies that have been suppressed and avoided over the course of a lifetime. In time and with patience and practice, tolerance for the sensations associated with emotion leads to acceptance, and even welcoming. Also, many ailments that are caused in large part by the physical effect of these blocked emotional energies will begin to clear… through awareness we get the gift of knowing our true nature and enjoying a healthy body!