Author: Junipur

What famous philosopher/poet wrote the immortal lines? Was it Ralph Waldo Emerson? or Thoreau? Maybe Shakespeare? or John Keats??..”Truth is beauty; beauty, truth.  That is all ye know, and all ye need to know…” or words to that effect.  Pardon my bad memory, I may not recall the author, but the lines have always stayed with me since youth, as expressions of some mystic reality beyond the apparent, the obvious meaning.
Volume 1 of Mother of Light: The Book of Fire, The Bardo is the tale of a life that covers vast expanses of human consciousness and experience – the distances traversed, driven by an insatiable hunger; ” hard-fought”, is what I would call it.  One of the many themes explored is of a life-and-death struggle against a state of demonic possession: I can’t delve into this aspect in a brief forum such as a blog, but I will say that the experience was an education – one without an endpoint – in the depths and inflections of human suffering, not only in the body, the personality, but of the soul, itself.  I was locked in hand-to-hand combat with the powers of doom, the loss of which battle would not only be catastrophic in the moment, but for the future, as well.
When I reflect back on the siege, cycle upon cycle, I am contemplating the thread that pulled me onward throught impenetrable darkness; it was a chord that seemed wrapped around my being, unbreakable by any force.  I realize this rope was bound to beauty; in fact, The Bardo is nothing, if not an examination of the power of living, spiritual truth, in its manifestation as beauty, and the cultivation and intensification of this luminosity to vanquish the shadow.  As the years crawled, one on the heels of another, and my endurance flagged, I pulled ever deeper from the universal wellsprings to create focal points of the gorgeous that would keep open those pathways to Transcendent Truth: perfumes, incense, music, anything and everything that would resonate the higher octaves of Light.
Because this is the thing…” the beauty, truth.”  If I had to make a single, pivotal statement about the reason (if one needs a reason) to pursue the spirit, it is because that ineffable is the birthplace, the cause, and the essence of all beauty.  And the dark, at its root and in all manifestations, is ugly.  There is no more certain highway to the Divine than to follow the spiral stairways leading you from beauty, on to ever greater beatitude.  Just remember not to be satisfied with the mirror-reflections of the glory in the physical; they are there in service, to lead you on to their source, no to stand in for it.  You have to remember to be reminded of. And to set out in hot pursuit.
That’s all for now, folks….Junipur, over and out

Introducing Consultations! plus, a little, tiny rant..

Greetings, folks, as we race into 2011, (or, as some of us may feel, hurtling like a comet towards 2012) – I want to announce The Book of Fire Consultations, now available through the Mother of Light website.  Those of you who have read Volume I: The Bardo, already have some understanding of the depth and breadth of my trainings in many modalities; but for those who have not come across the book yet, (or maybe even the bio, on the site), I can offer a brief introduction to my palate.  This includes, but is not limited to: radical kundalini awakening at age 20 (1976) which initiated the following 35 years of intensive yogic practice, mostly in a cloistered, solitary environment; Shaktipat initiations from Swami Muktananda,in the physical as well as the astral; initiations from Sri Amritanadamayi and Mother Meera, both in physical and astral; in-depth studies/apprenticeships in shamanism, astrology, crystals, transpersonal psychology; 3rd degree Reiki initiation; degree in Massage Therapy and Natural Healing.

I invite all of you to come and begin a dialogue with me; I have the experience to address concerns of personal development, (or, as Carl Jung termed it, “individuation”), in addition to matters of spiritual/psychic evolution, from the level of the beginner to the more advanced.  Visit the website for details.
Let me add some thoughts on the subject of “pedigree”: the glossary of trainings/initiations/degrees an individual holds is a somewhat scary, ambiguous thing.  It can be incredibly meaningful, and turn out to be a clear indicator of the inner quality, expertise, and age of the soul of the holder. On the other hand, these acquired  markers may have no relevance at all.  A degree is a promise – not a substance – and today, promises of all kinds are being betrayed, unfulfilled.  These experiences may have fallen onto fallow soil, or been accumulated by a soul very ‘wet behind the ears’, and lacking in maturity.  (Meaning that there will be a limited crystallization or yield from the training, etc.)  The problem we face in the age of materialism is that we don’t know we have the problem – it is a matter of general acceptance and assumption that the external currency – be it diploma, plaque, what-have-you – is the sought-after value/quality, in and of itself.  Now, I am in no way whatsoever diminishing the real, irreplaceable importance of disciplines from the outer environment.  Not for a minute.  But no one seems to have the same level of urgent concern, the same care about the quality of the stewardship of the inner attributes of the individual.  Let me tell you, anyone who has been in dire need of support in their lives, and has put themselves in the hands of a variety of different ‘therapists’, (all with proper credentials, of course) knows full well that a degree is like any other label on a package: what is inside the box might live up to, or even far surpass the promise of the title; just as easily, that sticker might come off with the wrapping paper, leaving an empty carton.  And an empty box would be a best-case scenario for this eventuality, instead of one stuffed and overflowing with somebody else’s left-over refuse.
Even then, one man’s garbage is another man’s pearl of great price…I only say, be sharp, be smart, and learn to observe the energies of the inner planes – most especially if you are going to open your being to the influence of another, unknown quantity.  OK, rant now officially over!

Til next time,
Junipur over and out

“The New Book is almost Here! “

Volume 2, the final installment of the Mother of Light: Book of Fire is in the works,  and we are racing to make our end-of-2010 deadline, folks..Tao of the Mother: Cantos on Fire-eating and the Art of Love in The 21st Century is the synthesis and tincture of the knowledge and experience gained in the journey  traced in Volume 1, The Bardo, for those who want to go straight to the heart of the matter, without the circuitous climb up the mountain…I will have more to say about this as the time grows closer, but for now I’m posting the Prologue, to get you thinking about it….

Dear Reader,

The writing of this book was authorized by Mother Meera, a universally accepted Incarnation of the Divine Mother.  And it has been called “the Hour of the Mother”, the 11^th chime striking as I embark on the discourse; in my understanding, it is the initiation of the entirety of the human collective, on the cusp of the cosmic Age of Pisces, and that of Aquarius.  The piece is meant to be a notebook about the concerns of spiritual practice in preparation for the passage, but I have entered the topic through the doorway of psychological approach – what we citizens of the ‘new age’ would have called “process”.  Among other things, I hope through the course of the journal to discuss: how psychological work, and spiritual practice are the activity of one and the same principle, differing only in name relative to the age of the aspirant, the maturity of the intent in the continuum of consciousness; that it is the agency of the Divine Mother – also named “Maha Shakti” – who comprises both the inner being pursuing the labor, as well as forming the living stream of intelligence, knowledge and power creating and guiding the birth of transformation on any point on the arc, whether it be termed “therapy”, or “sadhana”.  And whether the goal be resolution with one’s parents, integration of personality, or whole liberation of the soul from bondage.

I worried a bit when I was contemplating the writing of this book; while for me, these fields of contemplation, (and at such a pitch of intensity) are endlessly fascinating and hypnotic, I realize many find them dry, inaccessible…or worse, just pointless.  If you find yourself searching for a reason to embark on some arcane study, I can but offer my own personal experience of the odyssey: I want to say spiritual practice is the pursuit of the wild.  Beyond even instinct, it is primal, universal response to the irresistible call of the untamable, unquenchable wild.  It is the human mind, in its arbitrary conceptual framework that is the finite, and the dead.  But like everything in life, your interest depends on how you perceive things; how you see is, in turn, shaped and colored by what you really want.

It is my hope, as we are perched on a cliff overlooking the abyss, that these pages can add something fruitful  to the dialogue in which we, as a people, are now engaged.  But in the end, every path is a secret, inner way, singular to the unique individual. And no one knows the child but the Universal Mother – She alone possesses the book of the soul wherein is written, in letters of light, each intimate turn, step, sequence…the locks, the keys.  I would not presume to outline lists of rules, or “things” to hold close.  My intent has been to shed one beam on discerning the inscrutable way of the Divine Mother as I understand it – albeit from a limited human perspective – perhaps illuminating some syllable of Her language. Best of luck to us all.

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There is a very old allegory recounted in yogic lore, for the purposes of instructing young disciples about the simple, but inscrutable, implacable mathematics of karmic law: a man known as a great, realized saint was to visit a family, whom he had never met, for a meal. At the appointed hour, the family members are looking out, eagerly awaiting the arrival of this illustrious being. They were confused when a figure approached – somewhat tattered – and with only one arm. The people are looking around, embarrassed, and not certain how to react, as they are sure this disabled man can’t possibly be the Divine soul who will grace them with his presence at dinner. The man of the house gets up the nerve to ask the identity of this one-armed person and, to his shock, hears the name of the renowned saint in reply. The people are all looking at each other in disbelief, wondering if the visitor is an imposter trying to deceive them – because how could a soul who had received the full grace of God, and been bestowed enlightenment (meaning, among other things, perfect control of the realms of mind and emotion) possible be impaired, injured, or anything less than robust and perfect in every aspect?

What the saint replied to the queries of the family describes exactly the intersection between the push-button, predictable precision of the doctrine of mind expounded by self-help book, such as The Secret, … and the true depth of karmic reality.
The yogi laughs, when asked about his disability, and says simply: “ I lost my arm due to my prarabdha karma…. in a past life, I had done a crime to a certain man, and incurred this karmic penalty. But don’t be confused! Even a soul who has, in his present lifetime acquired the merit to attain liberation might still have a debt from the past that will have to be paid. One has to accept, and be surrendered and grateful for the chance to give back what’s due.’ {Prarabdha karma, in simple terms, is specifically from previous life, and may bear no visible connection to present action or merit.}

So here’s what I want to say about the mastery of the mental plane that is the basis of The Secret, and teachings like it that are abounding now: it is an aspect of ancient knowledge and practice that is one of the cornerstones of all yogic literature, but…and here’s the critical, and dangerous point…it is an extrapolation of occult law that has been extracted from an infinite sum of a whole that cannot, by any attempt of man, be reduced to any one of its parts. This cornerstone teaching of The Secret, adopted in toto as Bible by many millions of souls, only goes to prove the axiom that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. In the next blog I will be exploring some of the dark roads one can be led down, and deep places in which one can be trapped, by hooking one’s star to an incomplete, though thoroughly convincing doctine. The whole existence of the story told in The Bardo is but one small example of the thorough trumping the whole, mysterious Reality does to The Secret.

Junipur over and out, and until next time, don’t believe everything you read…!