This article is an introduction to a three day course led by Heather Smith and Yanni Charalambous. Heather has been studying and sharing the wisdom of the twentieth century American mystic Joel Goldsmith for over thirty years. Yanni is a ‘clearing the mind’ expert who draws from his extensive research and practice of the Ho’oponopono teachings.
Day One: Clarity In The Midst Of Storm
~ Understanding the spiritual truth of what’s really here… and what isn’t ~
To say that everything I experience through my senses has no Absolute Reality seems at first a most surreal and unbelievable statement. Yet, all the mystics claim it to be so. ‘A Course In Miracles’, Herb Fitch, Joel Goldsmith, Ramana Maharshi to name but a few all encourage us to look deeply into the experience of humanhood to determine whether the world we perceive around us is actually there. Those who’ve been ardently invested in using spiritual teachings to create a more fulfilling and meaningful existence may baulk at the idea of putting aside affirmations, mental visualisations, mantras and breathwork to simply rest in the awareness of Consciousness. “What about manifesting my dream life?” you might ask, or “Keeping up with everyone else?”. “What’ll happen if I simply ‘let go’?”
This course isn’t designed to encourage you to do that without first deeply examining who the ‘i’ that I claim I am actually is. And then, by de facto, who all the ‘others’ are, and what actually constitutes our daily existence. To do that, we take the first step of understanding the reality of Being and from there grasp the conscious awareness of that Presence. In Truth, Consciousness is all that’s here; it’s all I ever experience – Consciousness… the Life Force… the Light of my Soul – and we’ll be exploring in a while a practical exercise to do just that.
But before we do, I invite you to pause in your reading and join me for a very brief meditation. One minute is enough. As we’ll see in another article, time is an illusion, so when you pause, please know Yanni and I are right here with you, meditating as well. When you close your eyes, simply become aware of your Inner Silence. For those who are new to meditation, being still can often feel slightly uncomfortable at first because we’re not used to being fully present, watching thoughts arise rather than engaging with them. In which case, I would invite you just to be still in any way that has meaning for you. You might like to contemplate a word such as ‘peace’, ‘love’, ‘stillness’… or simply ‘listen’ within to the ‘hum’ of your Inner Vibration. Ok, let’s be still… Thank you.
We’ve said that Mind (Consciousness) is all that’s really here. The space of awareness where thoughts, sounds, colours etc arise and then dissolve, all by themselves. Our invisible Life Force – the infinite and eternal substance of our Being – is all we witness. And that’s quite a statement, isn’t it, when we seem to experience a whole myriad of things separate and apart from us? However, if all I ever experience is my own Consciousness, then there’s never anything or anyone external to Me. In the collection of spiritual ‘Wisdoms’ in Joel Goldsmith’s book, ‘The Infinite Way’, he writes: ‘Consciousness lives Itself; you do not live it’. This is reminding us that our Mind, our field of Consciousness – this Inner Invisible Presence – is the substance and law of our entire experience. However, we perceive this pure state of Being through the lens of the senses and thereby overlay Reality with a patina of beliefs. We see thoughts out pictured. But there is no ‘me’ and my ‘body’ – no ‘me’ and my ‘world’. It’s all Me, my Consciousness… I am the substance of all of it. It’s exactly the same as being the substance of every character in my dreams. If you’ve ever dreamt lucidly, you’ll know that you can witness a dream and at the same time be consciously aware that you’re not actually in it. Spiritual Awareness gives us the same clarity of discernment.
That takes us to the next revelation: the understanding that my Spiritual Essence is also your spiritual Essence; we are one and the same Spiritual Identity. We are created of the same substance – Spirit, Life Force. If the word ‘Consciousness’ doesn’t resonate with you, replace it with a word that does. But remember, our limited human mind can’t conceptualise Consciousness, which was why Joel Goldsmith preferred to use the term ‘Infinite Invisible’ when he was referring to Spirit. Either way, our focus is on that which looks out through my eyes, and this is the same self/Spirit that looks through yours.
At the moment, this may seem all rather theoretical, even if we can grasp the ideas and words intellectually. So I’m going to conclude by suggesting an exercise that’ll help us perceive what it is that exists behind my eyes. Gaining an awareness of our Self is the first step to examining how to navigate the world of thoughts appearing as forms on a daily basis. Yanni will be sharing some powerful and very simple exercises from the Ho’oponopono clearing method taught by Dr Hew Len which we can adopt to experience positive change after we’ve mastered this conscious Awareness. The Ancient Hawaiians believed everything in the sensory world manifested from thought and so whatever shows up as a problem for example (and that could be spirituality, mentally, physically, materially, financially or karmically) is simply arising from accumulated collective beliefs, words and actions. Becoming consciously aware of the “scripts” we project and are thus mirrored back to us in the field of Awareness enables us to reframe the way we engage with the mind’s content. Instead we learn to refocus on the Divine Mind within, thereby allowing perfect Peace and perfect Well Being to be reflected as our experience.
But more about that on Day Two…
For now, let’s explore how to be living witnesses of our own Inner Presence. How do we do that? Joel Goldsmith suggested meditation as one way, and he wrote a whole book on ‘The Art Of Meditation’. I would encourage you to also consider another approach by looking at your reflection in a mirror and then, rather than focusing on the image presented to you, turning your focus within and becoming aware of who, or what, it is that’s looking out through your eyes. You’ll come to see that who you really are is a vast expanse of Invisibleness. We can’t see (with our human eyes) what’s really there, we can only discern this Empty space where my head appears to be. You could also try this exercise when you’re outside in nature or in a large open space. It then becomes easier to perceive the One who’s looking, witnessing everything that’s arising in the moment. Everything our senses present to us is a mental image in thought. Totally transitory and substanceless and Yanni will take us deeper into that realization in our next discussion. Let our practice over the next month will be: every time you look in a mirror, or when you see your own reflection in water or a window, become aware of the one who’s looking out through our eyes at that image. You may like to journal your experience and what that brings up for you in preparation for Yanni’s discussion. Until then, let’s close with another brief meditation, placing our attention on the invisible Stillness and Silence Within that’s forever radiating Peace…Thank you
Suggested reading:
“The Infinite Way,” Joel Goldsmith
“The Art Of Meditation,” Joel Goldsmith
“Zero Limits: The Secret Hawaiian System for Wealth, Health, Peace, and More,” Joe Vitale & Ihaleakala Hew Len
For more information about our spiritual events & activities: www.linktr.ee/mysticalmeditation
Or email,
Heather: mysticalmeditation@yahoo.com
Yanni: yannimindbodyandspirit@gmail.com
Leave a Reply