Marina's Masters - Articles

woensdag 23 mei 2007
A journey of awareness

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I'm definitely slow at writing now; I actually started writing this bit on Valentine's Day and just got back to it.

It's about intimacy. This magical state can be called by many labels, including "intimacy" but my favorite is the term "essence contact". It speaks of the frivolous aspects of our personalities (including fears and expectations) stepping aside and letting the core of our selves connect with another. Gets by all this images we have about it!

It's hard to describe how to get there because it is after all a very natural thing. Look at the way a baby interacts with the world - with wonder. Every touch is a fully present touch, an invitation to explore. The effect this has on others is magical.

There is no difference between intimacy and meditation. Each comes from a state of division-less. There is no "other", no "I am this, and I want that, which I am not". There is only a wholeness that comes of no separation inside one's self; no difference between "outer" and "inner". In true intimacy, there is no difference between "the other" and "yourself", because at that moment, there is union.

It's good to also differentiate between intimacy with another and intimacy with yourself. Intimacy with yourself is always a prerequisite to intimacy with another, and the intimacy you have with another is never more than the intimacy you have with yourself. Intimacy with one's self largely falls under the heading of "know yourself", and is also meditation. Most relationships will focus on intimacy with each other, which often leads to frustration if there is not time and space given to self-intimacy as well. We all know about this – it's like banging your head against a wall that gets harder and more immovable the more you bash against it.

What's very humorous about the whole topic is that intimacy is extremely easy to achieve. It's a natural human condition. If you want to learn about intimacy at its basic nature, hang around babies; they don't know any barriers yet, so they touch the world and others in a basic, unfiltered manner. You touch a newborn baby and you're touching their soul; there is no separation. We can all return to that place very easily. All it requires is a willingness not to resist it. That is, not to resist ANYTHING. You cannot be in a place of intimacy and vulnerability within a sphere of protection against any feelings going on inside.

Building on this, for us adults, many things can block intimacy, but in my eyes they come down to fears and expectations.

If you look at a fairly 'normal' person in our society, despite the best intentions to head into a relationship with an open heart, there are fairly standard expectations.

Some I've seen are:

- Their partner should think of them as the "only one" for them and act accordingly.

- Their partner should never be critical of them and should always be unconditionally supporting.

- Couples should spend as much time together as they possibly can, and should always be first on each others agenda.

- Their partner should demonstrate affection and love in a very specific manner that means something to them.

- Their partner should understand them fully.

- Their partner should never feel attraction to other people.

- Good relationships should never have shit come up.

- No matter how negative or destructive you are, the partner should always be there.

Perhaps you'll recognize some of them! To see how a block might happen, say a person in a relationship feels a strong attraction to another outside the relationship. They don't want to leave the relationship, and don't do anything to further it. However, their partner feels what's going on and gets angry – a very natural result of having these expectations. So the person resolves to "wall away" these feelings, resulting in an inner separation between what's "acceptable" and "not acceptable". The consequence of this is a lack of wholeness, and therefore intimacy within one's self. This means that this person cannot actually bring their whole self to the other, resulting in a lack of intimacy in the relationship.

Note that there's a world of difference between agreements and expectations. Agreements are conscious and can be very clear, providing a nice foundation for intimacy. If there's an agreement to be monogamous (very useful in most cases!), and one person breaks it without a talk to change the agreement first, there's a very natural erosion of trust. It also speaks of lack of integrity/lack of self-intimacy. Integrity and intimacy with one's self are very intertwined.

Any expectation is a barrier to intimacy. No exceptions. Any condition, such as "I'm not willing to see the anger seething inside you" blocks the person's whole being from true intimacy, since intimacy is related to wholeness. Note that this is VERY different from not accepting behaviors. Anger can be welcomed as part of the other's experience of life; welcoming violent and/or disrespectful behavior is very inadvisable! To be able to see, in the moment, the innocence of the source of the behavior while being firm with boundaries about some behaviors (such as venting anger at you) is absolutely essential and a great help to the world.

I've noticed I can be frustrating in a relationship because my natural inclination is to value a relationship only as much as the intimacy in it. I don't judge relationships based on how long they lasts. I don't care much about "building a life together". Those things are in the future, not in the present moment. Most people approach relationships such as "if only the other person would commit to me, if only they'd be completely open with me, then maybe we'd have the intimacy we need". I try to approach relationships from open eyes that ask "is there intimacy here?". That is, intimacy in every moment, a welcoming from the heart. If there is, then each moment is a foundation for the next; that momentum can indeed last a lifetime.

Posted: 9:18:59 PM  
link to this article: http://www.marinasmasters.com/2006/categories/articles/2007/05/23.html#a1550


F A M I L Y

I ran into a stranger as he passed by,

"Oh excuse me please" was my reply. He said, "Please excuse me too;

I wasn't watching for you." We were very polite, this stranger and I.

We went on our way and we said good-bye.

But at home a different story is told,

How we treat our loved ones, young and old.

Later that day, cooking the evening meal,

My son stood beside me very still. When I turned, I nearly knocked him down.

"Move out of the way," I said with a frown

He walked away, his little heart broken.

I didn't realize how harshly I'd spoken.

While I lay awake in bed,

God's still small voice came to me and said,

"While dealing with a stranger, common courtesy you use,

but the children you love, you seem to abuse. Go and look on the kitchen floor

You'll find some flowers there by the door.

Those are the flowers he brought for you.

He picked them himself: pink, yellow and blue.

He stood very quietly not to spoil the surprise,

you never saw the tears that filled his little eyes."

By this time, I felt very small,

And now my tears began to fall.

I quietly went and knelt by his bed.

"Wake up, little one, wake up," I said.

"Are these the flowers you picked for me?"

He smiled, "I found 'em, out by the tree. I picked 'em because they're pretty like you.

I knew you'd like 'em, especially the blue."

I said, "Son, I'm very sorry for the way I acted today;

I shouldn't have yelled at you that way."

He said, "Oh, Mum, that's okay.

I love you anyway."

I said, "Son, I love you too,

and I do like the flowers, especially the blue."

FAMILY

Are you aware that if we died tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days.

But the family we left behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives.

And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more into work than into our own family,

an unwise investment indeed, don't you think?

So what is behind the story?

Do you know what the word FAMILY means?

FAMILY

FATHER AND MOTHER I LOVE YOU

God will bless you.

Posted: 12:43:27 PM  
link to this article: http://www.marinasmasters.com/2006/categories/articles/2007/05/23.html#a1547


Your Emotional State Affects Your Whole Reality

It’s so amazing how everything about you can change from one moment to another depending on what you are conscious about. When you operate from a different state of consciousness, you will have a different set of thoughts and feelings flowing through you. Your entire range of thoughts can shift from one to another when you move from one state of feeling into another. The frequency of vibration you are experiencing puts you into a whole different reality altogether.

Posted: 7:36:38 AM  
link to this article:
http://www.marinasmasters.com/2006/categories/articles/2007/05/23.html#a1539



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