The seven deadly sins – can they be changed into virtues?
By Jena Griffiths | May 18, 2012
I was talking to a friend the other day about the seven deadly sins and how years ago I’d read a fairytale about how they could be transmuted. He sent me this brilliant contemporary take on these 7 from Digg and also an excellent book The Virtue in the Vice – finding the seven lively virtues in the seven deadly sins by Robin Meyers.
How do the two compare?
Meyers says instead of pride, worthiness.
Emulation, not envy.
Righteous indignation instead of anger
Holy eros instead of lust
communion instead of gluttony
Wanting wisely instead of greed
and contentment instead of sloth
The transmutation recommended in the fairytale is quite similar:
In the fairytale here’s how the 7 transmute:
pride becomes courage,
envy turns to emulation,
gluttony becomes appetite,
avarice becomes economy,
anger turns into vivacity,
idleness into meditation,
and lust becomes love.
When you think about it, what’s the difference between the virtue and the vice?
A vice is an end in itself.
It becomes positive when it’s no longer an end in itself but rather a means to a higher end.
I went digging and re-found the fairytale, it’s from a Belgian tale called “The last adventure of Thyl Ulenspiegel”
(Published in Fairytales from Many Lands, Heinemann, 1974 with beautiful illustrations by Arthur Rackham.)
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The professor type – next hand shape archetype
By Jena Griffiths | May 17, 2012
Our next advanced hand shape call with Richard Unger is Tuesday, May 22nd.
We’ll be exploring the Professor Archetype.
The Professor
This is a combination of an Air hand shape (analytical) plus a dominant middle finger (Saturn mythological type).
More information about this series here.
Topics: Hand Analysis | No Comments »
Natalia Baker on healing the dynamics between men and women
By Jena Griffiths | May 12, 2012
May 14, 2012 we spoke to Natalia Baker about Sexuality as Dance:
on healing the dynamics between men and women.
We spoke about the relationship between men and women over the ages and how this affects us today.
Also how we can heal deep wounds.
Natalia has been teaching metaphysics since 1989 and has been counseling people for 18 years.
She offers retreats and courses in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
More about Natalia
Contact Natalia via email
Topics: Relationship problems | No Comments »
Replay of interview with Jitendra Darling – Being the Change, Transforming our Economy
By Jena Griffiths | May 10, 2012
Being the Change, Transforming our Economy
This was a fascinating call. We discussed how systemic change requires first healing our relationship with ourselves and each other. Jitendra walked us through his ALOHA practice in detail.
A = aware of one’s breath
L = liquid body
O = oh, I remember! (that I am part of all-that-is and bigger than whatever is happening to me right now)
H = heart (re-connecting through gratitude, smiling with the eyes and lips)
A = aligning with one’s beliefs – eg. I trust love.
Being the Change, Transforming our Economy
If you’d like to learn this system in more detail,
Core Initiation: Doorway to Restoring Dignity
Topics: Being in transition | No Comments »
Interview with Jitendra Darling is today
By Jena Griffiths | May 9, 2012
Our free auditorium call with Jitendra Darling is today, May 9 2012 at 11am Pacific, 8pm Swiss/Central Europe. Elsewhere
Being the Change, Transforming our Economy
Simply go to the free auditorium to attend.
Replay is here
What will we discuss?
Jitendra will share is warm eyes meditation with us which he says will help us connect with each other on a deeper, more profound level.
During the call, Jitendra will address the challenge of achieving radical systemic change in our world, from economics to social justice to how we treat our planet. With countless initiatives and almost as many debates attempting to sort out the best pathway to a just and sustainable future, there is a less obvious, yet critical, element necessary for the magnitude of transformation envisioned––the endemic shock that separates us from our full human potential for empathic connection.
Jitendra describes how this mechanism works and how it affects every relationship we can imagine, including the systems that surround us. He will also share a simple and direct practice with which each of us can strengthen and deepen the dignity of human our presence that will ultimately unite us in ways we so often dream and imagine.
Who is Jitendra?
Jitendra has been devoted to spiritual transformation for nearly 40 years. He is a spiritual teacher, shaman and channel for embodied awakening; founder of Core Awakening Journey, an evolutionary mystery school; Global Heart Initiative, a new program designed to build common ground in communities and organizations in order to facilitate broader and more effective collaborations among diverse stakeholders.
Jitendra created Core Awakening Journey as a pathway for others to benefit from his life journey that ranged from abuse survivor to spiritual enlightenment to emotional breakdown to shamanic descent into emergence in a new kind of integrated, embodied awakening.
He also co-founded OccupyCafe.org, a global online social network forum.
Topics: Being in transition, rollercoaster life | No Comments »
desires vs needs
By Jena Griffiths | May 9, 2012
In 1943 Maslow proposed a hierarchy of human needs. That each of us has basic needs and that we need to address the needs on the lower end of the pyramid before we can even begin to look at our higher needs.
More recently Tony Robbins proposed that each of us has six human needs:
1. The need for Certainty/Comfort.
2. The need for Variety. Paradoxically, we need uncertainty to provide spice and adventure in our lives.
3. The need for Significance. Deep down, we all want to be important. That our life counts.
4. The need for Connection/Love.
5. The need for Growth. To become better, to stretch and excel.
6. The need for Contribution. The desire to contribute something of value—to help others, to make the world a better place than we found it is in all of us.
In our recent call with Richard Unger on the Human Desire System, Richard tackled this topic from a different perspective.
He proposed that each of us has 4 types desires:
1. our wants in general (ego-driven, body-driven wants…),
2. a desire to understand/make sense of our lives
3. a desire for connection
4. a desire for solitude
These relate to the 4 heart line types (fire, air, water, earth), each type putting more focus on one of these 4 but still needing the others.
This call can be purchased form Earth School archives here.
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Dealing with intense emotions using the six healing sounds
By Jena Griffiths | May 8, 2012
In our call today with Richard Unger we discussed how emotions are reflected by hand color and we looked at three main transmutations cycles, for dealing with sadness, anger and being critical, particularly self critical. Richard shared several techniques in his toolkit for transmuting each of these emotions. We also briefly discussed the Taoist method of transforming negative emotions into positive loving, healing energy instead of bottling them up or dumping your emotions on others. More on this call.
Taoists say that our emotions are stored in our organs: heart, liver, kidneys, lungs, spleen.
Each emotion (both positive and negative) relates to a specific organ and can be transformed into a different emotion belonging to the same organ.
The Taoist transform emotions using the Six Healing Sounds.
This is done by making sounds and visualizing color. Here’s a brief look at the six healing sounds, as described by Mantak Chai of Healing Tao.
The six healing sounds
Each negative emotion is stored in a different organ and can be transformed, not into its opposite but rather into the positive energy of that organ.
For example sadness, sorrow and grief are stored in your lungs,
Sadness can be changed into righteousness in the lungs using the sound “Sssssss,” smiling into the lungs while visualizing the color white.
Fear can be transformed into gentleness and generosity by the kidneys using the sound one makes when blowing out a candle. One then imagines the color blue entering the kidneys and along with it the quality of gentleness.
Anger is transformed into kindness in the liver using the sound “Shhhhhhhh” and color green.
Impatience, arrogance and hastiness is transformed in the heart into joy, honor and sincerity using the sound “Hawwwww” and color red.
Worry and sympathy are transformed into compassion in the spleen using the sound “Whooooo”emotions.
I found this reference for you after searching the net:
a free a detailed description on the 6 healing sounds by Mantak Chia.
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This month in Earth School
By Jena Griffiths | May 4, 2012
We have quite a line-up of interviews for you this month in Earth School’s free auditorium.
Wednesday May 9 we’re talking to Jitendra Darling on Being the Change, Transforming our Economy. Jitendra will be sharing his warm eyes meditation with us which he says is an essential part of embodying the change. Log in here to attend or to pre-submit questions. More about Jitendra.
The weeks following
Monday 14 May we’ll have Natalia Baker on Healing the Dynamics between Men and Women.
And Thursday May 24 we’ll be talking to executive coach Andy Habermacher on his book, The Fox factor.
Why image and status will override ration and reason in the unconscious mind and what you should do about it.
All these calls will take place in the free auditorium. Simply log in to attend live on the day or to listen to the replay.
You can pre-submit questions for Jitendra if you go there now.
In the specialist classes with Richard Unger we have:
Tuesday May 8, our monthly topic call.
This month’s topic hand color and transmutation.
We’ll be looking at how emotions show up in your hands and exploring Richard’s
step by step process of emotional alchemy – transmuting suppressed emotions for personal growth.
Members log in here
More information.
Tuesday May 15 we’ll be combining hand color with other markers
in our advanced hand analysis threading call. More information on these advanced calls here.
Tuesdays May 22 and 29 we’ll be looking at the next advanced hand shape archetype –
The Professor type. More on this course
Hope you’ll be joining us for some, if not all, of these calls.
Topics: Being in transition, Hand Analysis, Relationship problems | No Comments »
Jitendra Darling says yes to Earth School interview
By Jena Griffiths | April 28, 2012
Wednesday, May 9th we’ll have Jitendra Darling with us in Earth School.
Time: 11 am Pacific, 2 pm Eastern, 8 pm Central Europe. Elsewhere.
There’ll be a replay it you can’t make it live.
What will we discuss?
Healing the endemic shock of our modern civilization. The essence of the talk will center around embodying the change we wish to see and how it relates to systemic change, especially with regard to transforming our economy.
Who is Jitendra?
Jitendra has been devoted to spiritual transformation for nearly 40 years. He is a spiritual teacher, shaman and channel for embodied awakening; founder of Core Awakening Journey, an evolutionary mystery school; Global Heart Initiative, a new program designed to build common ground in communities and organizations in order to facilitate broader and more effective collaborations among diverse stakeholders.
Jitendra created Core Awakening Journey as a pathway for others to benefit from his life journey that ranged from abuse survivor to spiritual enlightenment to emotional breakdown to shamanic descent into emergence in a new kind of integrated, embodied awakening.
He also co-founded OccupyCafe.org, a global online social network forum.
Register alongside for the free auditorium so that we can send you a reminder to attend this call.
Topics: Being in transition | No Comments »
Do you have a ballet dancer in your genes?
By Jena Griffiths | April 17, 2012
Have you ever noticed when you decide to do something (eg give up chocolate) another part of you kicks in with the exact opposite agenda?
These are your different sub-personalities at play. Your inner support team or your inner saboteurs.
(Image with permission from Chris Willis)
The trick is to recognize these characters and get them all to collaborate.
We’re busy exploring 16 of these characters with Richard Unger in our advanced hand shapes classes.
The next call is today and the archetype in the spotlight is “The Ballet Dancer” or the “Ballet teacher.”
You can join this series here.
Or simply log in for today’s call if you’re already registered.
Who is the ballet teacher?
Learn more about this type here or listen to the free auditorium call with Richard where three personality types were explored.
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