A Spiritual Foundation: Jumpstart Your Awakening
Step foot upon the path of awakening with the Divine presence and illuminate your eternal nature
Upon all things, a solid and robust foundation is at the cornerstone of all great works. No matter how lofty the tower might climb, the stability of growth and height into the heavens depend steadfastly on the stable and rooted foundation.
By our nature, manifest in a physically limited form, our gaze turns outward to a world we believe is separate from ourselves, creating friction within us. Yet the Eternal is forever calling. This divine attractor within creates an outward and inward cycle that loops within your being from one pole of being to the other. As a result, we are not fully manifesting in all our being at once.
By clarifying and simplifying your being, you can bring about a complete alignment of the self; the cycle then vanishes, like a reflection in a mirror, and the loop collapses, filling your being with the wholeness of oneness and divinity.
Journey with us, and we will reveal these cycles within yourself and bring complete clarity to your awareness in time.
Our goal at the Divine Presence Collective is to bring you practical, applicable tools to illuminate and dissolve cloudy patches within your being, revealing the blue sky of your soul and the eternity behind until the clarity of who you are is a radiant and brilliant reality.
Roots
Spirituality’s root word is Latin, the ancient language of Rome: “Spiritus,” meaning “breath, to breathe, or a wind.” It could not be more beautiful or natural that “spirituality” means the breath of life. It has such a perfect and elegant meaning without so much mystery and complexity.
Too many meanings and mysteries surrounding spirituality have been layered one upon the other up to the modern era. So, in light of this work, “spirit” has no more meaning than simply “the breath of life.”
A Living Teaching
My master was a secretive and secluded teacher of the Western Mystery Tradition. My first lesson was to impress upon me how much I did not know. The root words for knowledge are “cnawan” and “knew,” meaning to perceive or experience. These roots indicate that knowledge comes first-hand, only from one’s direct experience.
We come to you now in this “Medium” for those of you who wish to reach across the digital world to have a direct living link to a teacher willing to go all the way with you until you are a beacon to the world, a light shining within the darkness.
Reality vs. illusion
Think about all the “knowledge” you have from your spiritual exploration. How much is direct from experience versus secondhand from a book, movie, video, teacher, or friend?
This “book” or “secondhand” information is not knowledge; it is only a lot of words and ideas. Consider how much of this information may form your foundation of thought and, undoubtedly, what you believe.
Whether large, ancient, or modern, all religions were founded and continued on secondhand spiritual “knowledge” passed down through the generations. They all recognized the importance of the teachings, but when presented as only mental ideas via text, they fall short of illuminating the whole human being; appealing to only the mind falls far short of igniting the flame within.
Interestingly, religion’s root words are still debated: Does the word come from the Latin word “Religare,” which means to re-connect, as in re-connect to the divine or “relegere,” meaning “to go over carefully.”
Humorously, religion’s divine and challenging nature is already evident from this scholarly debate regarding the source of the word in mysticism and dogma.
Reference: The Etymology of Religion
Sarah F. Hoyt, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 32, №2 (1912), pp. 126–129
The Etymology of Religion on JSTOR
Sarah F. Hoyt, The Etymology of Religion, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 32, No. 2 (1912), pp. 126-129
Belief
The goal of awakening is to experience by perception the true and living Spiritual Breath. To do this, you must disregard everything anyone has ever told you: all books you have read, all sermons you have heard, all sacred poems you enjoyed, everything.
Wipe the slate clean and drop any preconceived ideas; these only stand in the way and can not illuminate a path.
At best, consider it outstanding entertainment. Some truths may exist, but how can you know truth from fiction without first-hand experience? Let’s start acting, experiencing, knowing, and not believing!
Being a disbeliever to all but your own experience is a challenging but crucial lesson: All the information you’ve gathered secondhand on spiritual subjects is developmentally worthless. Any knowledge not gained from your experience or perception is no more to you than a fantastical dream or an illusion at best.
Yes, for one who has experienced a union with the Divine, it is a life-altering event for them. But to the bystander watching or to one even further removed reading about this person’s experience, it is merely a thought, maybe a fabulous fantasy, but no more than that, as every one of us can dream on and think up any number of fantasies to infinity.
What is imaginary is not a spiritual experience but a filament of your infinite mind, as glorious or extraordinary as the “vision” might seem, no matter how inclusive it may make you feel; like an inspiring movie, it is like actors, smoke, and mirrors — creating a fantastic illusion presented by the mind to feel real. So real, you think you are chosen, unique, and selected for some heavenly duty. Yet, when you open your eyes to the world around you, the reality hits you: No one is proclaiming your majesty.
No, it is not that your mind is diabolical; it will do as you want when on a leash, but like a dog, if you let it run amuck, it will get into a lot of mischief.
On the flip side, when your mind-scape shifts to thoughts of self-loathing, lack, loss, and fears of the future, these, too, make you feel horrible and can spiral you down into depression and inaction. This mind-scape source of low self-esteem is the same imagination faculty as the glorious fantasy of being chosen and the same spinning of valueless thoughts with no place in reality.
Our mentality is the Maya, the illusion, the dream space, Mystics, Yogis, and the Buddhas expound on the plight of humanity, our mind-scape that is no less than an infinite realm of which we believe is fixed and absolute. Understand that this is our playground of illusion, which is endless in form and flexibility. There is no persistence of mind, foundation, or cornerstone on which to build here!
The first thing we will impress you with is that you are not “just” your mind; you are so much more, above and below this particular spectrum of the mental space we call the mind.
Reality is so much more than we “think.” Yes, this is a play on words!
As Westerners, we spend a lot of time thinking in mind space, calling this infinite palace of beliefs, desires, wants, and dreams “real.”
We will show you through your own experience that if you expand your focus to what is taking place at this moment, you will notice that what you “think” or “believe” is the opposite of “reality.” In time, like a distant cloud, your thoughts will become so far away and under your control that the bliss of Divine Radiance will shine before you as a pillar of living fire.
You are the vehicle, the do-er, the door, the light and the illuminated, the seeker and the prize. The eternal is within you, robed in the illusion of the finite. — Divine Presence
With a simple but revealing series of practical exercises, we will rend away the veils of illusion, allowing the light of truth, love, and divinity to shine through your being. Your change will be radical; no one who knows you will know how you changed, but they will see and perceive a different being before them.
Week by week, we will provide through simple instructions the tools of transformation, not into complexity but simplicity, pulling away peal by peal who you are not. It does not matter what anyone else experiences; it only matters what you do.
Your first key to success: What you experience, your perception without coloration by your mind, is the doorway to our actual reality.
So who’s on board? We want to hear from you! Lessons forthcoming will come only with your response, so speak up, speak out, and walk with us on this path of discovery, illumination, and awakening!
First Practice
To begin our foundation, we align our consciousness and perception with the actual.
The exercise is so simple that a newborn baby does it naturally. It is so pure and illuminating in action and experience that when you have it, you will say, “ WOW!”
Remember, the key is that this is simple. It’s so simple you almost miss it. It is so secret within yourself yet so powerful that it will set you on the path of awakening, and in many, this is already awakening in itself.
Instruction
Get comfortable right where you’re sitting. What is important is that you are relaxed and have a few moments to yourself. This is all.
Take a few long, slow, deep breaths until you feel your body relax.
Now, notice what captures your attention. Where does your focus go?
Thoughts? Emotions? Feelings? A sensation? A pain? Sounds? Smells?
Yes, your attention will go from one thing to another.
Now, what grabs your attention further? Thoughts, oh yes, thoughts will catch your attention, and you run with them. You start to discuss this or that idea, using your inner voice in a discussion with yourself.
Stop.
As you know from experience, it takes two to have a conversation.
Who are you talking to?
Open that up. Who is there?
Oh! What is this space of absolute emptiness? In this darkness, in this unknown, is your most resounding, most intimate, and secret power.
Have you got it? You just accomplished the seemingly impossible; you turned yourself to face yourself! Exactly how could you have done that?
Let me know what you experienced in the comments.
