Satsang Blog

Ever since I was a child, the festivities of the winter holidays always captivated my senses with a feeling of magical amazement. One particular part I always looked forward to was seeing all the twinkle lights people would string around their houses, making the seemingly-average home now glow in illuminated spectacle.

Now as an adult, I reflect on memories such as the twinkle lights to discover a deeper meaning. On one hand, they are just lights strung together to decorate households that wish to be a part of the collective holiday experience, but as a student of consciousness, I realize they can also symbolize more.

For me, I came to understand how self-acceptance is about loving the seemingly weaker parts of ourselves, so that we may transition from the judgment of individual aspects of self to accepting the sum of our parts in collective gratitude.

We learn to accept all of who we are because every part of self is a connected aspect of the essence of Light the self embodies. To find the essence of Spirit in the unlikely parts of self, is the greatest way to expand our capacity to live in unconditional love. I then realized how human consciousness is like the twinkle lights I've always enjoyed. Each light is equally important in connecting with the others, to hold the energetic charge so light may shine throughout the entire strand, in radiant wholeness.

I then reflected on how often times most of the twinkle lights will glow with one pesky light not cooperating with the others. I began thinking of the various parts of self that I've always worked so hard to hide from the world…the parts I feared others would discover because it would surely prevent me from being seen as I hoped to be seen. These shadow parts of self are just like those pesky twinkle lights that remain unlit.

These lights are waiting for a current of energy to come along to make the experience better than what it's been, not realizing, whether lit or not, they are connected to an entire strand of twinkle lights already glowing. When the defiant twinkle light stops rejecting itself from the strand by feeling separate and different from the whole, its fuse connects with the others and now can share the spark needed for collective illumination.

These resistant twinkle lights are the parts of self that don't realize they are part of the complete connection already embodying the light they are waiting to discover. As the collective strand of twinkle lights we call humanity, we are free to allow self-acceptance to welcome every unlit twinkle light or unappreciated aspect of self to be seen as a vital part of the collective presence.

We recognize how an experience without all parts of self fully present may lead us to feeling incomplete or unfulfilled. To be fully present is to bring every part of you into full acceptance and may begin in any moment.

As this awakening occurs, we participate in a unifying glow as all twinkle lights individually harmonize into the collective beauty of our reality.

© Copyright 2007 True Divine Nature, LLC

Throughout all the vivid memories of life, the sweetest ones I can remember seemed to have had a distinct connection with chocolate. As a child, chocolate was a form of currency. My earliest memory of abundance was being the one clinging tightly to a scrumptious bar of chocolate among a sea of friends who were willing to do just about anything for even a sliver of cacao gold. As soon as the wrapper came off, chocolate was like an edible super power that had the ability to interrupt any tantrum or frustrated emotional state. It had the power to deem anything in my focus at the moment, completely irrelevant as long as the chocolate was being passed my way.

Chocolate, as it came and went in its many forms throughout my life, was a symbol of sweetness. No matter what was happening and how important I believed it to be, the chocolate would appear as a reminder that all is inherently well – and that like the chocolate, at my core, this sweetness is actually what I am.

This realization, of course, would be twenty-eight years in the making, even though the signs were there all along. The fact was that every time I ate a piece of chocolate, it became clearly impossible to focus on the endless thoughts running through my mind, while simultaneously enjoying the chocolate that ignited each taste bud like an explosion of flavor, all at the same time.

The chocolate didn't seem concerned with waiting around for me to end my thought. It was there in the very moment I found it, and whether it melted in its wrapper, in my hand, or in my mouth, it remained an experience I could always enjoy if I honored it with focus and attention.

As spiritual maturity slowly woke up, I began to see these subtle teaching chocolate had always offered, not only as a symbol of sweetness, but as the sweet truth of life underneath all the noise, goal-setting and finger-pointing.

Chocolate was even revealed as my first meditation teacher, whose disguise was everything it needed to be, gently pulling my attention from the compulsion to change, fix, and judge my experience of life into simply sitting for a moment and enjoying what is here right now.

To anyone else, it might just be an oddly-shaped object or something else to see and touch in this living experience of space and senses. Once you open the wrapper, however, the deeper teachings become available as you hold and taste the distinct flavor life continues to offer, unable to fully immerse yourself in the experience, unless whatever was important a moment ago begins to fall out of focus. It is in this moment when the sweetness of life simply disguised as chocolate begins to reveal itself to you.

The teaching of chocolate showed me how my thoughts aren't as important as I once imagined. I can look back at all the times I was caught in my mind ranting about someone or something that had unjustly caused suffering in my life and all of a sudden, I was offered a piece of chocolate or as I now see it, life's funny way of telling me it was time to meditate.

I would eat the chocolate and as I did, the thoughts weren't there as they were before. Now it was the joyful consideration of how wonderfully the almonds and dark chocolate blended together, as the chocolate pointed to the arbitrary nature of thought by offering me an opportunity to fully enjoy life, just as it is.

The chocolate would soon be eaten and I wouldn't be able to remember what I was thinking about and even if I did, I couldn't get back to the same emotional pull that made it so important only a few moments ago. If I was truly meant to keep thinking about it, how is it that it could be so easily forgotten or destroyed by the dharma of chocolate?

Chocolate became the kryptonite my pointless, self-indulgent thoughts could never rival. One by one thoughts would come and go, vanishing from a mind that once labeled each one as true, vital and necessary to dwell on, and in the end, all that was left was a teacher called chocolate inviting me to be one with the sweetness of life.

The teachings transformed my entire perspective of life. I am truly humbled by this gift of clear vision that now sees a beautiful world, as whole and unique as each piece of chocolate that somehow found its way to me.

© Copyright 2008 True Divine Nature, LLC

During a recent meditation, I was taught about love in a very simple yet profound way. My angels were teaching me how the concepts or words change from the inner self versus the outer world, but when we understand how the two languages translate, we are able to find the connection between both realities.

They showed me how the inner workings of the soul are comprised of pure light, and that pure light may only be understood in the outer material world as an experience of love. They said, "In your inner world, there is only light and that light takes on a form in order to be seen through human eyes in the outer world. The form is what is seen and often that visual form takes the priority over remembering the pure light that fills the form."

This means through the expanding of our awareness, we can go beyond the physical form of what we see and whatever meaning our past experience has projected onto it, to discover the open space of eternal presence the rests within each person, place, or object.

Carrying that as a spiritual practice throughout my day, I suddenly began to see everyone and everything as various forms of infinite creation – existing however they choose to be; doing the best they possibly can with whatever consumes their focus in the present moment. The overwhelming rush of compassion surged throughout my body and I became more uplifted from this peaceful sense of love. It deeply permeated how I observed and spoke to these fellow souls with great humility and renewed appreciation.

From this experience, I also realized that we can betray love when we distrust it, focusing on the pursuit of collecting the things our minds deem necessary to possess before we can open to the feeling love already provides us. We are never asked to apologize to this love, because it can only greet us in joyful and unconditional acceptance.

We can thank this love, but it only receives our gratitude by offering us more of what we're now thankful to have in our lives. It seems the only way to truly honor this unconditional force called love is to accept it as the clearest mirror of our inner being. To realize love's only intention in our life is to exist as the purity of our true divine nature that we may express through the gift of emotional freedom.

On the most fundamental level of existence, our true divine nature invites us into this deeper knowing of love, speaking to us through a language of silence only our hearts understand.

Beyond the conditioned responses of our personality, evolving from the history our mind organizes and references, exists a spark of light that continues to love us into existence. It lives only to honor our every choice, as the magnificent work of art only love can find in us all.

© Copyright 2008 True Divine Nature, LLC