FILAMENTS OF LIGHT—MEDITATIONS AND TEACHINGS
From Sylvia’s classes and seminars. 

NEW BOOK in progress
EXCERPT:

APRIL 2004 – OPEN SEMINAR

“Seminar” is the Western equivalent of “Satsang”. Sitting with the teacher. In a spiritual seminar, learning is occurring at many levels and the questions and answers are the platform upon which subtle and deep learning can happen.  There is nothing new in either discipline, East or West. A different language and different approach. The essence is the same; to bring Light into being in greater and greater measure on planet Earth. 
 

Opening meditation…

Close your eyes…and begin to imagine a source of radiant light…and begin to breathe this radiant light…Imagine that this radiant light, the most brilliant, purest, most wonderful light that you can imagine…imagine that this light has awareness, that this light of radiant awareness…is aware of you.  This light is aware of us, this light radiates all the unconditional love and peace and wisdom and compassion in this universe of light…Imagine just relaxing into this light as it pours and expands and emanates…from a point of focus high about our heads…… this light is pouring,… breathe this radiant awareness…let it pour… as if you are breathing all the unconditional love that you could ever imagine …as you breathe, this light is filling you with healing,…. with warmth…with great intelligence…you are breathing wisdom…

Take some deep breaths…you are filling yourself with radiant awareness and in this awareness is guidance…is anything you ever needed to know about anything… and all you have to do is relax into it and choose to be true to yourself…

Imagine this radiant awareness is filling your chakras…and filling your physical being from the top of your head…and through your head…through your neck and shoulders,. your arms and hands…stomach, back, legs, knees, ankles, feet, filled with radiant awareness…and breathe…

Let your chakras expand… and breathe… and receive…your heart…your mind…your feet…your hands…receive…and imagine that this awareness is pouring into your energy field, into your emotional body…into your mental body… you are expanded by this light, your whole being filled with the light of a brighter star… a brighter you…

and imagine that as you breathe… you  inhale and fill, …and you exhale and release…  breathe this radiance into your whole being…  exhale and release radiance back to the Source ...  inhale and it pours back renewed… as it pours back through your energy field it renews, and it replenishes, and refreshes you as it pours into your energy field, your chakras and your physical body, all on a breath. 

So just sit with that for a moment…relax into that…and that radiance has filled you with vitality,… with relaxation, and most important of all, with the great virtue of happiness.  Do not let anyone tell you that happiness is not important, it is of the greatest importance…so choose happiness… and take a deep breath… and open your eyes and stretch……. 
 

Welcome.

       I have been asked by some of you to give you some pointers about how to describe and discuss the book as you recommend it to friends and family. I know it is difficult for you who have been studying with me to talk about the Real Magic Course—there is no theory or philosophy that you can use to explain it to people.  It is about you and your experience. As you use the principles and practices in the Course, a Path unfolds for you. This is a path of transformation that is created by your own experiences. This is very difficult to discuss theoretically.  I had the same problem with writing a book about the Course.  When I was looking for a starting point, I did not know how to begin the book.  

      I found that—in attempting to create a book about the Course—I found myself going back to my initial inspirations, reconnecting with the Hermetic teachings and my feelings and thoughts about alchemy. I reconnected with why I was so drawn to these disciplines. 

      Why? I wanted to learn to transmute energy!  I have always known that we, human beings, could directly, with our minds, our thoughts, and our desire for truth, transmute energy.  I thought, if only we become energetically conscious in our attempts to change things for the better, and develop an understanding of the energetics involved, the changes could be authentically true and powerful and nurturing for everyone.  So I pursued alchemy as a technology that, once learned, would allow people to directly and consciously transmute energy. 

       In the beginning, as I pursued alchemical and esoteric studies I was very frustrated with what was at the time available. As I studied, I had revelations about the Hermetic Teachings and realized that Hermes was offering us a technology of Love.  And in a technology of Love you can change anything that needs changing and you change it through grace and not through violent disruption.  Once that technology of Love becomes a part of you, you can transmute anything, you can connect with your truest self and walk in an existence that is true to you because you are consciously creating it and you know that you are consciously creating it.

      So what can you say—say that the book offers a Technology of Love. 
 

                        * * * 
 

      We are studying The Great Work—and the goal of the Great Work is, of course, the transmutation of conflict into harmonious wholeness. I based the Course on a Hermetic Principle—that opposite or contradictory information or states of being can unite harmoniously through the transmuting action of—and this is key—a new Word. This new Word structures available energy and calls forth an entirely new potential from the old form. Trash into Treasure.  The Word, Treasure, calls forth the essence of itself from the old state of trash. I also subscribe to the Hermetic belief that human beings have a Divine origin and because humans originated from the Word of God, humans are creative beings imbued with Superconscious potential, which is the potential for constant, radiant, awareness. The Superconscious mind is the faculty through which humans are able to comprehend the universe and utilize God’s Word  and consciously participate in the evolution of life—the transmutation of matter into Spirit.

      There are so many teachers and teachings now based on the idea that form follows thought and whatever thoughts you dwell on will manifest in your life.  This is why I focus on qualities rather than material goods.  There are enough teachers focused on material wealth. Let us focus on manifesting qualities like trust, wisdom, compassion, being true to yourself, and such.  You can argue that qualities are not form—well, qualities are not material form but a quality is tangible and when you have chosen to receive a quality—such as compassion—and it manifests within you, it is present, you know it is there—it is unmistakable.

                        * * * 
 

      All right—let us begin this Seminar with some questions and answers. 
 

      Question from student: “Would you talk about attention—why is attention so important? I know ‘It’s the most powerful thing we have’ but why is that so?” 
 

      In anything you want to create or change, the process of creation requires one thing. It requires energy—a lot of energy. And to manifest any kind of form, this energy must be focused. Where does this energy come from? Energy is created wherever our attention stays or dwells in the most focused way. If you keep your attention directed so that it stays focused on your true desires—for example, your point A is anger and you focus on Serenity, or Grace, or Freedom and stay focused there—and you stay focused by defining Serenity as point B—you can create a tremendous amount of energy working to connect you with those qualities (serenity, etc.) and bring them home as part of you, dwelling in you. If you learn to use your attention consciously, you can gather and hold vast energies and direct those energies through the power of the Word into manifest form. 

      This is why intention is such a powerful force.  You can create a lot of energy with your attention but if that attention has no where to go it just dissipates.  Focusing that energy on an intention tells this focused energy what to do—it gives it a basic structure like a skeleton gives a basic structure to a human body, and a wooden frame gives a structure to a house you are building.  You focus your attention on a clear intention and you keep it focused—and this is all you need to know about manifesting—the practices and principles just build on this simple truth.  This is why I say there are no secrets. It is so simple that no one believes it so there have to be Courses and classes created and many teachers saying in various ways that manifesting requires only two things—your focused attention and a clear intention.  How to create anything you want?  You take the most powerful thing you have and focus it through the most powerful force in the universe.  That’s the whole Real Magic Course right there! 
 

      Student: “What would you say is the most important thing to focus attention on in the Course? I mean as we do, work through, the Course?” 
 

      Do all the practices equally.  That is the way to create powerful change.  The practices are designed to bypass the ego and transmute it at the same time you are bypassing it.  The practices are simple, the principles are easy to grasp—hold your attention on a Word and this creates energy and structure; stay focused on this Word by using a mantra, stay with it, and you will manifest something.  Why doesn’t this happen easily?  Because your ego won’t let it, your ego tries to control everything, and your ego uses the beliefs that you are emotionally attached to—such as fear—to control you. Why?  Your ego is doing its job.  We have discussed this many times. 
 

      Student: “Could you discuss it one more time. What do you mean by ego?” 
 

      Ego is a consciousness. It is an energy form vibrating to a particular intention—and that intention is to protect your belief system as it exists right now and to do this it draws on beliefs and past experiences—ego is never in the moment, it is in the past.

      Imagine that your right now consciousness contains a template that is shaped like a triangle with sharp, pointed edges and you are choosing to shift it into a whole, multidimensional circle.  Your ego will fight to keep the sharp, pointy triangle template from changing. You have to keep over and over showing your ego the holistic circle until it gets the message that the circle is a real and desired part of you, the circle is what it is supposed to be happening, the circle is real—and it begins to allow the circle to come into being as a new template.   

 The egoic consciousness corresponds to the subconscious and unconscious (primal self) parts of our energy. It is unseen but it is a powerful energy structure. It can hold fear in and keep trust out simply because its job is to protect you, to keep your consciousness from changing. If you have a lot of fear agendas, your ego is going to act to keep the fear from leaving because it believes that the fear is real, it believes that fear is an important part of your self—and it is protecting the fear—even if the fear is killing you, your ego will protect it.

      The ego is an amazing invention. It is an intelligent force but it functions unconsciously, we cannot follow the movement of our ego any more than we can follow the workings of our Spirit, (which functions superconsciously).  We have to trust our teachers who are teaching the workings of the ego.  And, of course, your ego is the first part of your consciousness to say “Don’t trust the teacher!!  He/She is a fraud—leading you astray and making you feel bad!!”  Does this sound familiar?  (laughter)

      I view the ego and its existence as proof that we live in a truly intelligent and far-reaching conscious, creative, universe.  Just imagine if we did not have an ego as part of our being. It is a consciousness that protects the physical form, and is focused on physical survival, and its program has to do with the ability to remember trauma and create an belief in danger based on your experiences and what you tell yourself about each experience.. It maintains a file of possible dangerous others. Think of the first time you touched a hot stove as a child. I’m sure you never touched it again and you learned to say “owie” and “hot” and you never forgot it.  Imagine being two years old and falling into water that closes over your head.  Just once and you never do it again. Why? Because your ego has the ability to file a belief and pass those beliefs on, person by person, tribe by tribe, culture by culture.

      This is why we say beliefs are not bad. The bad thing about beliefs is that they become emotional certainties about our identity, so we cling to them and fight to hold on to them and believe that if we don’t protect our beliefs we (our identity) will die.  So it is our relationship to beliefs that is damaging. This relationship to beliefs has created a planet of separation, of beliefs fighting with other beliefs.  And all these beliefs create fear.  And the bottom line belief that any “other” might prove to be a “dangerous other” and therefore all “others” must be controlled lest they turn out to be dangerous has created a species that is programmed to believe that fear is real.  Does this encourage trust between human beings?

      This is why we commit to the Great Work, which is, to transmute every thing within us that creates fear, distrust, anger and war.  To search within ourselves to find and heal our self-hatred, the “dangerous other” within. To learn discernment rather than judgment. This is why we work so hard to create goodness in ourselves—because we are working against a planetary point A, a basic, bottom line, internal, cellular, planetary belief in scarcity that creates tremendous fear—the fear that there isn’t enough!

      We carry a structure of beliefs that at any moment can trigger a reaction within us the moment we feel that we are not safe.  And this is why we can’t just focus our attention on an intention and have it come into being.  Our egoic belief structure begins fighting with our mantras, fighting with our practices, and our feelings go into conflict, feelings of panic and paranoia arise, and we want to blame some “dangerous other”.   This is what we have to contend with and why we must be strong. 

      The Course practices are continually teaching us that we have other options and that for the sake of all beings, we can focus on and bring into being those other options. 
 

      Student: “So do we have to rid ourselves of all beliefs? Isn’t that possibly dangerous?  And is it possible? Is this why the Eastern religions say ‘slay the ego’?” 
 

      Slay the ego is an ancient teaching that is no longer relevant. No, we don’t try to kill the ego, we can’t really, in this human form, live without beliefs, without an ego.  The Great Work is to re-structure the ego, transmute the existing beliefs by bringing in new experience using new Words based in trust of life that transmute the old beliefs that are based in fear of life.  This is possible and this is the Great Work and it is a Great Work. 
 

      Now I would like to ask you a question.  We can start with Sally. Sally, what has been your most difficult experience in practicing the Course and trying to manifest change in yourself—in your work with the Course and with me, what has been the hardest part of it?  Can you remember?  You’ve forgotten but it was very real when you began. 
 

      Student: I think the hardest thing has been remembering, in the midst of some of the hardest times, that the best support is to do the practices and meditations. Now I am finally at a point where when I feel worst, I know that the thing I want to do most is to meditate or to review your writings. I have a partially frozen shoulder right now that I have been working on and sometimes I really don’t want to do the exercises because it’s painful and it takes up time, I spend a half hour every morning, and always about 15 minutes into it I’m so glad that I do the exercise because it starts to feel better and the pain lessens. It’s been a real correlation for me, it’s like I’m re-teaching my shoulder how to function in a more healthy practical way and that’s exactly what the meditations do, they really teach us, one, they give me back my sense of humor, that’s for sure, and two, I think of it like the oil in my world that helps things move smoothly and gives me buoyancy. 
 

      Sylvia: Like a luminous lubrication that flows into every cell….beautiful!  What about you, Karen. You’ve never taken the Course but you’ve studied with me for many years. What has been your experience with it—you haven’t had the structured practices—but we’ve had meetings and teachings about power points and polarity. 
 

      Student: Well, I really related to Sally and I would add a little bit more from my personal experience and that is about talking to other people who aren’t working with you, doing the age-old trying to get support from friends, which, I have seen more and more, feeds directly into exactly what I am trying to transform. 
 

      Sylvia: You mean they feed your sense of being a victim? 
 

      Student: Yes. It’s been important for me to quit looking to somebody else when I have something that I’m working on that’s bothering me, we’re all kind of programmed to do that, and now I don’t, instead I sit down and meditate or receive some sense of superconscious Guidance rather than calling a friend and I notice that even the little bit that I have talked to other people recently, even when I’m not even asking for support or help, people can still say one sentence that can trigger certain things. 
 

      Sylvia:  You have become more aware of when you are being triggered.  Yes, one word can trigger your total ego.  
 

      Student: And I have learned to say, no I’m letting that go and I don’t want to focus on that or look at it in that way. 
 

      Sylvia: You are using it (being triggered) as a power point. How does it feel? 
 

      Student: Incredibly liberating. It’s beautiful. 
 

      Student: I always feel like I’m coming home. 
 

      Sylvia: Yes, coming home. So beautiful and simple and expanded. And it requires so much commitment.  It requires constant practice because it, what you experience, is beyond the range of theories that can be talked about. Theories can’t help you, ideas can’t help you.  Experiencing your own Self is what helps you—which means you also have to experience your resistant, wounded self and recognize it as not truth.

      Yes, focusing on the practices is primary. In the beginning this is the hardest thing for students because there is no theory, no philosophy, no proof that says if you do these practices,  something special, is going to happen—you have to practice radical trust.  And so often you have to do the practices in the face of your resistance saying “nothing’s happening, why should I keep doing this, I’m tired.” 
 

      Student: It goes back to power points, constant power points to be in the moment, and for me a big challenge is to watch the news on TV or just things that come up living day to day with all of this “going on” and try to stay conscious and make conscious choices and focus my attention. 
 

      Sylvia: Right! And this requires constant practice—until the moment when the past falls away from you and it all becomes simple—just being alive becomes a simple flowing moment. Doing your practices is like learning to play the violin. In the beginning the violin can seem like a possibly dangerous alien, even unattainable or impossible—but at some point you become adept at it and realize that you are playing the violin. 

      You can move easily through life, watch the news, be more effective in your choices and actions, easily take care of your children, anything you do you can move harmoniously with it because you know who is doing it. Who is living this life for you and what does the being living your life really want? These are the two real questions—one, do you like your life the way it is now, and, two, what do you want?  Your whole path is based on these two questions. 

      And what is it that lives through you and loves through you—Spirit!

      And the ego is afraid of these questions because your ego is focused on having to make a judgment, having to decide either/or.  The question is “do you like this situation?” There is no place where it says “you have to make a judgment about this situation”.  You don’t have to decide either this or that, for or against. You don’t have to decide “how” this can be changed or resolved.  It doesn’t matter if it’s your relationship with your wife or husband or best friend, or child, or the world situation—it is in your life and you are unhappy, anxious, worried, angry about it. 

      And your ego is afraid of it and this makes you angry—but—it doesn’t matter if you are afraid, it doesn’t matter if you are angry.  Remember—it is not about your feelings!  It is about what choice you want to make about it. There are many choices you can make that will get the energy moving toward a new relationship with this inner problem.  And I say make your choice be about the quality you would most like to create in your inner self, the compassion, wisdom, peace, humor, understanding, truth, you would most like to receive.

      Your ego reacts in an old way. Is this what you want?  To your ego this problem and the feelings that come up for you, means you have to make a judgment, and to decide you don’t like something or someone means you have to do something about it—if you say you don’t like the other person (mate, friend, child, parent, sibling) that means you have to fix-it—but you can’t fix-it because you are supposed to be loving and caring about them and to want to fix-it makes you a bad person in this kind of dynamic.  But you are so unhappy you judge them and want to change them or change yourself so that the bad feeling will go away—and you don’t know what to change or how. You go around muttering to yourself, “Its my mom or dad or sister or wife/husband or best friend, or teacher, so I mustn’t say I don’t like them—or it’s my lack, or the world situation—I have to find a way to control it, I have to fix it because if I don’t my life will be even more out of control—and I hate it.” 

          You are trapped in a vicious and untrue cycle. Well, take heart, you do not have to judge them because it is not about them!  It is about your relationship to the situation you find yourself feeling trapped in, and that situation is created by your relationship with feeling trapped.  Although another person might be the trigger, it is not really about them—it could just as easily be your car or your job or that you overslept, or that your toaster isn’t working—that is the trigger.  In other words it your relationship with yourself, not by your relationship with the person, place, or thing that is causing your wounded, angry self to surface, and this makes the situation one of conflict—but this self can be changed.

      In this change nothing has to be “fixed” because when you change your inner qualities, the world shifts to resolve the problem in the best way for all concerned.  Yes, you are dealing with a very conscious universe—and it is a universe that wants you to prosper!  Creation itself will solve your situation through bringing in the energy of appropriate truth.  You choose the quality you want to create in yourself and Creation moves to bring it about.  Your job here is to trust in Creation—and if you are a normal human being this is the hardest job you will ever have. We are not trained to be trusting. 

      So point A is I don’t like myself in relationship with this situation. Point B—I choose trust and whatever quality most fits the situation.

      What you are going to learn is that whatever the situation, the thing you don’t like is in yourself, it is not about dad or husband, or your girlfriend or the state of the world, it’s about yourself.  This is what all the spiritual cliché’s—like, “You are the answer”—are talking about.  And the fact that this self can be changed is the greatest learning of our age—this is the true meaning of The Great Work. The alchemy of Self-Creation. 
 

          *  * *

      I’m going to tell you a story about myself before I learned the process of Creation and how Creation moves in mysterious ways to help us when we act in our own behalf, no matter how victimized we feel

      In the conscious creative process, we create a polarity, a map of what we want our attention to focus on, then we create a mantra to help us stay focused. We create a conscious choice and this choice is our agreement with God, with Creation. A conscious choice says you are agreeing to receive—you are saying “Give me what I am—a BMW.” Well, a BMW might not be in agreement with what you authentically want or what God or Spirit wants for you so you might not get the BMW but you will get a path laid out, your next step will be laid out for you.

      My story is that I was pretty much stranded with my children on Lopez Island in a cabin out in the boonies. No electricity, no water, and I did not know how to drive. My husband was no help because he had become a significant dangerous other in my life. But he did have an old Volkswagon bus.  I learned to drive by grinding my teeth and getting in that bus by myself and just doing it—because my fear for my children outweighed my fear of driving. I had to get to the store, and what if one of my kids got sick?  So I drove. What I really wanted and was crying for in the wee small hours was someone to help me, someone to be nice to me, someone to love and care about me and my children, someone I could count on, someone to live with who would drive for me. What came into being? Someone living IN me who could drive. Where was the blessing in that? An old Volkswagon and a mean husband who mocked me, whose meanness was energized by my victim, and being miles away from any kind of help—this was a blessing!  And it was not until I learned to manifest consciously and let go of my deep victim beliefs that I was able to acknowledge that blessing and truly receive it. Why was that?

      My victim self was constantly focused on my “poor” children and my mean husband and my fear. Even after I had forced myself to learn to drive and left my husband I still believed that my fear and my victimization was my real life!  And my victim had a strong voice—only when I was truly on my own and learning about conscious manifesting could I realize how much opportunity for blessing I had been given, not the least of which was my gladness that I was no longer afraid to drive—only then could I say “Gratitude, thank you”. 

      Manifesting will happen, is happening constantly, and sometimes it’s not until much later in the alchemy of your whole life that you realize that you manifested exactly what you needed.  When you are most in victim you might receive something that will be the very best step you can take at that point.  The Technology of Love isn’t about getting everything we think we should have, it is about becoming true to ourselves, it is about doing more and being more than you imagined you could be.