Practices
Core Values in Practice
Self-Care and Sovereignty
Core Values in Practice
Self-Care and Sovereignty
Self-Care and Sovereignty
Self-Care and Sovereignty
Core Values in Practice
The only requirement for church membership is the desire to observe and practice these core values
Unconditional Forgiveness and Humility
We found that until we forgave ourselves and others, we could not know freedom, and without humility, forgiveness was an impossibility.
The Relentless Pursuit of Peace
We found that only peace was worth pursuing, once we gained humility and forgiveness.
Self-Care and Sovereignty
We found that without sovereignty, we could not operate with any predictable functionality, and saw fit to secure our personal liberation and care as our highest priority and responsibility.
Community and Charity
We found that acting in service to our community and sharing our experience was the only fulfillment we could ultimately achieve.
Meditation
Life can be a blurry mess at times. We're sensually bombarded from all angles, lost in a constant slurry of thought and feeling. When the noise grows out of hand, and you feel like clarity has been compromised, a regular practice of meditation can make all the difference.
Meditation, put simply, is effortless existence. This does not mean you must be sitting in full lotus, or in some serene location listening to beautiful music; these things can certainly help, especially if you're new to the practice, but meditation is most valuable when the environment is chaotic or when you are under stress and uncomfortable.
One must surrender to the present moment and the movement within. If possible, arch the lower back and allow the spine to fall into alignment. Take a deep breath in, preferably through the nose, and exhale, feeling your torso gently sway with your diaphragms expansion and contraction. This exercise is about allowance. Do not force or time the breath. Allow the breath to fall both in and out of the body at its own desired pace. You want to breathe autonomously as long as possible, practicing this technique until this natural state is one which you can enter at will.
With the allowance of breath, we move to the allowance of thought. Meditation is not about focus, but surrender. The same way we are automatically inclined to focus on and control our breath, each thought calls our attention. Some thoughts are more alluring or alarming than others, seducing our attention away from the moment we're in with rapid ease. Practice, however, can change this. As thoughts enter our awareness, we can sit in passive observation, and like the breath, allow them to fall in and out. Witness without judgement. Witness without resistance.
Meditation is something you can do any time. Many people experience deep meditative states without realizing it, such as musicians and athletes. When one is in a state of autonomy, even if that is a state of action, the brainwaves and physiological signals throughout the body are in a state of flow, which is incredibly healing and lowers resistance to realization and positive manifestation.
Any practice of meditation is incredibly beneficial. Whether you prefer to meditate by spinning flaming poi balls, dancing or doing yoga in the sun, or even simply laying down in a dark and quiet place, give yourself the sacred space to practice, and the permission to fail as much as you need to. You can only grow with experience.
Self-Care and Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the essence of all self-care, and dependency a subtle master. The quest for survival and fulfillment leaves us searching for avenues of exploitation. What can we trade for that which we need? How can we secure a better life most easily?
Living in a chaotic environment which is not in alignment with nature makes these questions and their most relevant answers just as chaotic and misaligned. We truly only need two things in life; we need to give and receive love, and we need the freedom to do so. There is virtually nothing we will lack, no resource out of reach, so long as we have these two things. Yet, many are left to struggle for basic necessities because the chaotic environment is invariably competitive in its misalignment.
People have all but completely strayed from nature, becoming dependent on, or addicted to, illusory power, substances, feelings, ideas, lifestyles, relationships, property and identity. Dependency leaves us feeling greedy and insecure, selfish and always lacking, desperate for control. It leaves us feeling like potential victims, because we have put ourselves in a state of vulnerability. We seek to gain, often in disregard of the cost to ourselves and others. We have lost touch with what love is, and the critical importance of freedom.
Love is appreciative attention, perpetuated by unconditional forgiveness, and absolutely nothing else. It's the witness we desire, and the reflection we crave. Its opposite is abuse, neglect. Love is not a promise, or some kind of guarantee. Love is a gift delivered and received with our immediate presence, in the present moment alone, and unconditional forgiveness sets that love free.
If we trade our freedom for anything which grants the illusion of security, we lose our very alignment with nature, and our very ability to love. This is the loss of our only means of attaining any security in the first place, and the only provider we can ever truly depend on. The power freedom holds therefore invokes the greatest of all responsibilities. One must be vigilant in their pursuit of internal liberation in order to maintain personal sovereignty.
The first loss of freedom rests in judgement. This subtle wound is self-inflicted, even if outwardly projected. To judge someone is abusive, neglectful. It is the denial of appreciative attention and forgiveness. We can not judge others, only our reflection in them. We can not judge ourselves and know freedom, only a lack of self-appreciation and forgiveness.
Judgement is the product of dependency, and the first dependency is attachment. Attachment to our experience, and to our identity within it. Without this dependency, we can not judge. We can call this experience our individual life, and the identification with it our ego.
So long as we identify ourselves as separate from other people, and indeed the entire universe, we will judge ourselves in comparison with all there is. We will deny ourselves the abundance of identification with nature, and compete against it for all we dare selfishly attempt to claim as our own or shape in our image.
By instead surrendering our ego through humility, and releasing our expectations in life, we can know unconditional forgiveness and be completely without judgement, unquestionably free. Nature provides what we need, even if that is resistance. By aligning with nature, we instead gain its assistance, and competition is never again necessary. It is from this place alone we can make use of our individual power for positive manifestation of the change we wish to see. We can be without self-inflicted stress and trauma. We can indeed be whole.
This responsibility rests solely on the individual. Sovereignty can not be forced upon someone, only ever subjectively adopted or pursued. It is purely a matter of perspective; external circumstance is irrelevant. Dependency comes in many forms and grows vast in complexity, but always originates from insecurity. It divides us from nature, leaving us immeasurably vulnerable. It is love which heals us, and forgiveness which sets us free.
The wise accept personal responsibility, forgive all unconditionally, align themselves with nature alone, and claim the freedom to peacefully secure their own loving path as they feel guided.