Being with God

WHAT IS THIS ABOUT, "BEING WITH GOD"?  The past 10 years I have been hosting Labor Day retreats at Tara's Meadow, Beaver Island, in North Lake Michigan. It is a beautiful, natural location for holding retreats and welcoming "spiritual sojourners” on a new kind of vacation. It was during one such a retreat that some of us experienced the numinous shift I call "Being with God."
 
 
It began when I introduced our group of 25 pilgrims to a Deepak Chopra "field of consciousness" exercise. I invited folks to gaze into mirrors, focusing on their eyes only (not on those wrinkles or emotive expressions). Gazing into this crystal clear pool of the eyes we can see beyond our smaller selves into a universal field of consciousness. And it is here that we can best affirm (in a quiet voice) some simple truths to ourselves: "I am independent of the judgments of myself or others. I am no greater nor lesser than any other being. I can engage fearlessly with my life." The mirror of our eyes gives us a wonderful point of entry, a doorway into an unbroken consciousness where we find there is no death, no judgment, no fear.
 

Our "field of consciousness" awareness unfolded even further during the movement meditation arts called Celtic Body Prayers. I asked folks to listen to instructions and look at me as usual, but simultaneously to shift their sensory attention to their toes, their bellies, then to a location outside of their bodies, and finally settling in their hearts as they moved.  From this new heart-attending space we experienced a subtle yet profound shift in consciousness.
 

Some of us arose early each morning during the Retreat before these workshop sessions for a sitting meditation. A small group of us gathered together on our mats at sunrise in the dewy wonder of the Meadow, breathing in and then releasing into thoughtlessness. Our mentor Bernie Ware suggested that we drop all goals of "self-improvement," rather that we just call our attention to breathing in, "breathing out and dissolving,” breathing in again. Meditation without an agenda.
 
 
Ella Young, Irish poet and revolutionary, was once asked how she could manage to talk with the trees. She answered her incredulous interviewer in this way: "Choose a tree, and then go out each morning and greet it, with no expectations of a reply." Communion with no goal in mind.
 

All of this I believe is about truly "Being with God." Or to be more precise about this, about "Being with God without an agenda." Prayer is a powerful tool. It's potency and efficacy has been clearly demonstrated in research. But when I sat on my mat in meditation each morning, I sat without the agenda prayer usually carries along with it. And it felt like I was honoring something very basic to existence.
 
 
When I look at my eyes in the mirror, if I am captured by the sadness or weariness or age lines of my expression, if I’m scared by my own judgments, then I’m seeing only my own story line and agenda. The God I know has no such judgments, story lines or agenda for me. Why should I? If I center my gaze on my iris instead, I might for a moment slip into the clear pool of consciousness that is always there. I might discover my eyes as the grails they are, and find in them a pool of divinity.
 
 
Jim Mullin-Norgaard is a peacemaker, life coach, and carrier of the Celtic Spirit. He is the originator of "Celtic Body Prayers", a new shamanic movement meditation art. Jim hosts retreats and welcomes individual "guest sojourners" to his beautiful home and Retreat Center at Tara's Meadow, Beaver Island in North Lake Michigan. Call (231) 347-7957 or visit www.CelticBodyPrayers.com for more information.