enlightened

An Unexpected Delight in Mumbai

December 9, 2016 by @candesscampbell

A sickly body does not indicate that a guru is not in touch with divine powers,

any more than lifelong health necessarily indicates an inner illumination.

– Paramhansa Yogananda – Autobiography of a Yogi

This holiday season I want to share a story from one of my trips to India that was enlightening and opened my heart.

The first few days of my trip to India were about teaching me to listen to my intuition. One of the experiences where I didn’t listen to this gentle inner voice was at the train station in Mumbai. On the platform a young crippled man came up to me. He was scooting himself with his hands across the dirty cement of the station. His feet were twisted and as he sat his legs curled up toward his chin. I reached into my purse and gave him some coins. My intuition said to give him 500 rupees, but I was aware my travel mates would say no and so I didn’t. When I gave him the rupees, his eyes and mine met and there was an incredible Light in his eyes. I felt like I had touched a power source and electricity ran through me. A few minutes later he crossed my path again and our eyes met, we smiled, connected and waved.

[clickToTweet tweet=”What you see is a reflection of your inner being!” quote=”What you see is a reflection of your inner being!”]

As I write this, days later, my eyes are tearing. When I went to our train compartment I shared my experience with my Indian friend. He said “this is the first of many you will meet. That is why you were so touched.” I explained to him that I agreed I would meet many, but that this one is different. My intuitive self knew he was an Enlightened Being. My friend asked then why would this man have that kind of body?

I entered trance and began to share the information I received. I understood we are not our body. This physically crippled man has transcended his body. The reason he took on this body is that he came to the earth, this incarnation to be a Light and to mirror to others. Everyone who looks at him will see him differently. I saw an Enlightened Being. Another person may experience anger, sadness, judgment or joy. He mirrored to us what we needed to see in ourselves at that time. I needed to see an Enlightened Being in a form that I did not expect. Another time I may experience him differently.

If this experience was all that happened to me spiritually on this trip to India, it would have been enough. This incredible Being gave me a healing I will remember forever.

As the trip continued I realized an important theme of this trip is we are all connected and we gift each other. In this case, I gave him rupees and I saw who he was. He gave me some kind of spiritual activation and awareness of myself, an understanding of what my life is about at this moment.

I hope that we can look at others in our lives and experience the healing of being mirrored by others during this sacred season.

Blessings to you and your families during this Sacred Season!

In the Mirror of Others!

June 26, 2016 by @candesscampbell

I was having a discussion with a friend tonight about my beliefs and Christianity. It was great to share with each other about how she experiences Jesus and my relationship with Jesus. She was curious about my beliefs and I asked if she had read my blog about my trip to India and she hadn’t. I didn’t realize I had first published it in 2011, so I am re-posting to share with her and you!

I realized that the first few days of my trip to India were to be about learning to listen to my intuition. One of the experiences where I didn’t listen to this gentle inner voice was at the train station in Mumbai.

On the platform a young crippled man came up to me. He was scooting himself across the dirty cement of the station with his hands. His feet were twisted, and he appeared to be sitting with his legs curled up to his body. I reached into my purse to give him some coins. My intuition said to give him 500 rupees, but I thought my travel mates would say no so I didn’t. When I gave him a few rupees from my purse, his eyes and mine met, and there was an incredible light in his eyes. I felt like I had touched a power source with jolts of electricity running through me. A few minutes later he crossed my path again, and when our eyes met, we smiled, connected and waved. The feeling was so intense, that even days later, as I write this, my eyes are tearing. When I went to our train compartment I shared my experience with my Indian friend. He said, “This is the first of many you will meet. That is why you were so touched.” I explained to him that I agreed I would meet many, but that this one was different. My intuitive self knew he was an enlightened being. My friend asked, “Then why would this man have that kind of body?”

I entered trance and began to share the information I received. I understood that we are not our body. This physically crippled man had transcended his body. The reason he took on this body is that he came to the earth this incarnation to be a Light and to mirror to others. Everyone who looks at him will see him differently. Some may experience anger, sadness, judgment or joy. What I saw was an enlightened being! He was mirroring to us what we needed to see in ourselves at that time. I needed to see an enlightened being in a form that I did not expect. Another time I may experience him differently.

If this experience was all that happened to me spiritually on this trip to India, it would have been enough. This incredible being gave me a healing I will remember forever.

As the trip continued, I realized an important recurring theme was: We are all connected, and we gift each other. In this case, I gave him rupees, and I saw who he actually was. He gave me an incredible spiritual activation and awareness of myself, an understanding of what my life is about at this moment.

We can look at others in our lives and experience the healing of being mirrored by them. This is the sacredness of relationship. Whatever it is you are seeing in your life, take time to see it symbolically.

Recently, I was sitting on my patio reading a novel. Suddenly, I saw a spider on my knee, right there as if it was looking at me. I am not extremely frightened of spiders, but I jumped up: “Aahhh!!!” and knocked it off my leg. Then I asked myself, “What message did this little creature have for me?” In answer, I quickly saw a spider web holding all the projects I have in play right now. I saw myself spinning my own web. Then I saw the spider in the corner of the web resting. I realized I need to sit in the corner of my web at times and rest. Later, when I was sharing this story with a friend of mine who teaches dream interpretation and who I knew would understand the symbolism, I also realized my reaction to all my projects, was: “Aahhh!!!” I laughed at myself. I loved the mirroring gift from this spider.

Whether you are traveling the trains in India, sitting on your patio in your back yard or sharing with a friend, the gift of seeing yourself in the mirror of others is available to you daily. What a gift to expand the awareness of the magnificent being that you are! What a gift to shine your light as you remove the veils and stand in your Light!

Since I wrote this, I read the book The Yoga of Max’s Discontent by Karan Bajaj. If you enjoyed this story and have not read his book, I highly recommend it. His teaching about yogis transcended anything I understood before and expanded my mind and I will be forever grateful.

“A sickly body does not indicate that a guru is not in touch with divine powers, any more than lifelong health necessarily indicates an inner illumination.”

Autobiography of a Yogi – Paramhansa Yogananda

Response to Racism

December 12, 2013 by @candesscampbell

This is a response to last week’s blog which I emailed to my subscribers. I received several comments back and this one, from Dennis Thomas I find important to share. I agree with him completely and he said it much better than I could have!

Hello Candess,

I have always enjoyed listening to you or reading some of your work and I am ever grateful that you offer this to me on a regular basis. This message you sent made me pause and consider as I too was raised in a family with a “racist” father as well as two grandfathers that were active members of the KKK and very proud of it. I too went through a time when I needed to make a choice; whether to continue with their stories or to create my own in regards to race and separation. I chose to create my own path, although it alienated some of my family, and moved me towards a better understanding of acceptance. At least that is what I believed.

Now over the many years of observing and watching the goings on of the world, I have moved into a belief that for us to find the Oneness that you mentioned we must not only understand it (clarity) but also experience it (liberation). When we changed our story, which we both chose to do, we decided that racism was bad and non-racism was good. Just a story change, nothing more. When we examined that part of our fathers that we believed was incorrect (racist) and needed healing, we did nothing more than judge one belief over another; my story is more aligned with Truth than my father’s. I am more evolved, more enlightened. In time even that seemed insufficient. I then believed that neither one was wrong. I believed that if I backed away from the “out there” experiences as a silent witness then my state of “awareness” was my actual self and I could see that all of those experiences that were creating happiness or suffering were nothing more than an illusion. I had moved from an actor in the illusion to a being in awareness of the illusion.

A lot of spiritual seekers stop at this point and become observers, believing that all is an illusion (no-thing) and tell themselves that their pain and suffering is not real, yet at the time, it seems real. But the one who has experienced Oneness moves deeper into the Truth and realizes that everything is real and not real at the same time. No-thing, appearing as everything, returning to no-thing. He knows that he is part of everything and everything is part of him; racism, no-racism, terror, pain, suffering, joy, kindness, compassion and so on. All the same stuff, all Truth. No bad, no good, just Being expressing Itself as Being.

We might use the ocean as a metaphor. We are all of the ocean and the individual waves as part of that ocean seem to express a differentiation that leads us towards an idea of separation. Some of the waves might appear as angry and crash into the surf with harsh expression and some of the waves move with the rhythms of the cosmos; in harmony and peace. We want to judge the angry waves as conflicting and disruptive while we accept the others that are more in alignment with our beliefs. But, to find Oneness we must find that part of our Being that knows that all of the waves are nothing more than the ocean itself in its perfection, expressing itself as itself. We must find ourselves in the racist and non-racist, the act of racism, the emotions that evolve from racism and all of the space in between. And, when we find ourselves in all things then we will truly experience Oneness.

I will end this note with a piece from Jeff Foster’s book, The Deepest Acceptance. “The true end of suffering come from the recognition of this total intimacy with life itself- in other words, the deep acceptance of “everything” appearing in experience. In this deep acceptance, mind and heart are one. Nothing is everything; they are never two separate things. Mental clarity and certainty give way to deep acceptance of this moment. And there, the war ends.”

Have a great day, Dennis Thomas, DVM

Wasn’t that great! My deepest gratitude to Dennis!

Candess