Meditation and the Art-maker _____________________________________
a few words about
The Arts and it's Relationship with Meditation
The ARTS, SPRITUALITY & MEDITATION
An ancient highly productive partnership that's been going on in all world cultures for millennia – so we're not going to review humanity’s responsive and amazing story here.
There is Tao, Zen, Ikebana, Haiku, Bushido, Zen Gardens, Ritual Dance, Noh Theater, Calligraphy, Zenga, Nanga, Bonsai, Religious Icon Craft, Temple Chanting & Sacred Music, Negative Space-use in art, Healing & Shaman Ritual, Geisha Mindful Gestures, Samurai, Tantric Erotic Art and the renown Tea Ceremony etc upon etc. ART always was SPIRITUAL, a human’s higher-expression of The Sacred. – Actually in all cultures world-wide ! A Mindful Meditative Artful Sacredness.
Art-making, art-viewing or art-experiencing
are inherently 'contemplative' activities . . .
that naturally benefit from meditation ~
Meditation strengthens the art maker's mindfulness and awareness. Meditation enhances the creative and viewing processes in specific ways – it helps to synchronize mind and body, right and left hemispheres of the brain, and our intuitive and intellectual abilities. The mindfulness & awareness practices found in meditation develop our perception so that we may see and experience things as they truly are. This leads us to genuine spontaneity and pure, unselfconscious, full expression. A 'creative process' based in the practice of meditation dissolves creative blockages, reveals the source of creativity, leading to clear perception.
In the 'experiencing-process', meditation develops intuition, our pure felt-sense, sharpens our native intelligence and can lead us towards an experience of the aesthetically profound or sublime – where our felt & thought senses come together – to further awaken the 'creative' and the 'viewing' processes.
~ Steven Saitzyk - Professor, Humanities& Sciences,
Art Center College of Design – Los Angeles
and International Director of Shambhala Art
The Practice of MEDITATION:
The Benefits ? – enhances & strengthens
the art-maker's mindfulness & awareness.
“Meditation ...a doorway
to the significantly
to the significantly
deep unconscious.”
“Before meditation, before I used to ‘sit’ regularly
like I do now – I used to be only semi-conscious
and impulsively leap at the first images n’ things
that arose in my mind, and at what soon became
so banal - but I’d already started on it, or often
got way into it. But now I simply meditate and wait.
Sometimes I can wait quite awhile quite patiently.
I’ve simply learned to quietly wait by training myself.
That’s all, just that. I’m training myself in stillness.
And in the stillness the deeper regions of my mind
slowly unfold - and I only observe, not reacting,
not seizing on anything, not grasping. Just
witnessing and waiting. I see so much now.” ~ J.L.
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Thru a willing, consistent meditation practice -
gradually & naturally you expand & deepen an authentic, attentive, open, clear, uncluttered,
wide, roomy, calm spacious field of awareness -
less & less disturbed by ongoing, shallow, chaotic,
obsessively running mental-images & commentary - a panoramic field - toned, strengthened& stabilized
with a naturalistic meditation practice-approach ~ art
uncompromised with 'religion' or prescribed methods -
so you can have it readily available to you personally -
effortlessly, open, spontaneous & without efforting ....
Ah, then there's lots n' lots of vivid, deep, rich room
for true creative manifestation to naturally arise
in that much more silent, more user-friendly field
of e x p a n d e d awareness that's now all yours.
Just learn to begin to sit still sans ego. Simplistic?
Of course it is. It's just that you're not simple yet !
Ahh, but soon... your subtle depths are calling...
~ Akasa Levi
BTW, Some really good ancient Buddhist Art ~
http://www.buddhanet.net/gallery.htm ______________________________
"If one's thoughts towards 'spirituality'
were of the same passionate intensity
as those of a couple falling in 'love' –
one would become a Buddha right now,as those of a couple falling in 'love' –
in this very body, in this very life."
~ from The Love Poems
of the Sixth Dalai Lama ( 1703 AD )
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“ART” is what You call 'That'.
What I call 'That' - is just That.
~ William Eggleston, photographer
Since all things are essentially naked,
at least from their side, of course....
There is nothing to 'attain' or 'realize.
The 'Everyday Practice' of a practical
'Everyday Enlightenment' is simply
to 'd e v e l o p' into all situations,
and all emotions, and to all people –
as they simply come to you . . .
experiencing everything totally
without reservations and blockages -
so that one never withdraws, or aloof,
or centralizes back onto oneself.
~ Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
_________________
The ARTS,
SPRITUALITY
& MEDITATION:
The Benefits –
SPRITUALITY
& MEDITATION:
The Benefits –
Meditation strengthens
the art-maker's inherent
mindfulness and awareness.
the art-maker's inherent
mindfulness and awareness.
No "Beliefs" – A Core Understanding of Buddhism"
No 'beliefs': just watching, witnessing, perceiving, just noticing, just investigating, just observing, observing, observing, observing' – with absolute 'bare attentiveness' – just seeing, hearing, feeling – without 'beliefs', without 'faith-in', without buying-in. Holy Indifferent. No demand. No identifying with it. See it clearly, maybe leave it entirely alone.
Not psychologizing about it, not rationalizing, reasoning, justifying, not storytelling.Not dismissing, not banishing, not fixing it, not meddling. Just observing, observing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Silly Solipsistic Zen Story about
the ‘Real Purpose’ of Meditation Training?
Taken from true facts, as the story so goes, Bhante Sudu Hom'dru, was an American Buddhist monk who grew up on a small chicken farm near Woodstock, NY. Now barefoot, painfully, mindfully walking the narrow ridges of hot sun-baked clay crossing a dry rice paddy field near Bodhgaya, North India, mid 1970’s – with his noble Samurai-blooded Japanese Zen monk-teacher Shibuya Sensei. Once a teenager questing through an Elvis 50’s, this delusively-romantic, magical-thinking American always wanted his very own Zen teacher-friend ever since finding alternatives in ‘Jazz’, finding Jack Kerouac’s 'Beat' open On The Road,
and especially late night radio-listening to early Jean Shepard dramatically invoke the mystical Fu Manchu or intone a good Haiku - circa 1958 - when ‘hip’ was shared among the very sparse few who knew. This funny, yet indignant Jewish ‘young soul’ evolved into this really ‘old soul’ robed sanyassi that partially ‘awakened’ himself way outside a parched desert village in India. It was high-noon in ‘search of secret India’ – so he gave up looking to Hesse’s Siddhartha for guidance or Gurdjieff’s elusive Meetings With Remakable Men to lead him forward - and thus became a monk himself – and he ironically found an ‘identity’ to finish-up all identity-seeking – that Long Last Role of the Buddhist – And it was still so bloody hot. Foolish barefoot yogi ! This novice, this overheated new monk had a Question: This monk always had a question. Like a persistent child. Yet, it is so sad so many of us loose that quality early on in life. ‘Answers’ offered don’t seem to ultimately do it for us, nor permanently resolve anything & we stop ‘asking’. Many of the monk's questions usually began with the same lead-in: "What is the 'purpose' of . . this or that or such n' such"? This monk was still involved with ‘reasons’ & ‘purposes’ to things or ideas. Lots of ‘content’, still little wisdom-‘context’. He hadn’t re-discovered his ‘wonder’ yet.
Except he did begin to see that it all is an unconsciously performed stage ‘magic show’ for him o 'observe' everyday ‘illusions’ – just our fumbling attempts at some self-conscious Human Hocus Pokus – manifesting here alongside Nature’s Grand Guileless Illusions. This monk knew he was fragile, still fascinated by a tempting-performance. He asked Questions to sizably reduce his options.
“Oh, I've seen that – another ‘Repeat’ on TV t’nite”. Wisdom thins out repeat shows. Less to cling to. "Sensei?" he asked him e.nun.ci.a.ting in slow, simple words because Sensei’s English at the time was not too good. "What is the purpose of Zen-training?" Sensei responded warp speed in his Asian-accented English – "To become aseempahton." Well, not getting the word quite discernable at all - the young monk asked once again, "Sensei? – What is the real purpose of Zen-training?" So Shibuya Sensei patiently repeated again & again, till the word finally punched itself through – the esoterically mysterious word WAS now finally, clearly comprehendible at last – "Ahh ~ Purpose of Zen training is to become a-seem-pah-ton – a-seem-pah-ton - and he wiggled
his wagging fingers wildly in the air for the briefest moment – then tapped his fingers on the young monk's smooth-shaven monk-head. "Seem-pah-ton" – "The Purpose of Zen training is to become a Simpleton". They both had a good chuckle. They then continued to walk on in silence. The monk thought about how having a simpleton’s empty-head could allow room for more Space and Peace to be in his simplifying mind – BE his mind ! So he could see better with it - make wiser, kinder choices with it - and now 'know' simple happiness. He then stubbed his toe on a clump of clay. "F#@k" –– But no Katsu shout of Satori today!
~ Bhante Sudu Hom'dru ( 1975 )
What is POETRY ? What is your current medium ?
• COUNSELING THERAPY for The ARTIST:doc
All our individual rambling stories begin with a 'Search' --
Spiritually speaking, that's a very classic way to start.
At one's Core, something got lost and one goes out
to try'n find it. Don't we all kinda' relate with that ?
The ART MAKERS and other
Aware Gifted Maverick People
• COUNSELING THERAPY for The ARTIST:
an effective Buddhist-based 'Alternative'
to psychotherapy for the Discomforted Mind,
Wounded Spirit, Despairing Relationship and
elusive Impasses to Liberated Limitless Creativity.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
buddhistcounselingtherapysantamonica.blogspot.com.
..... The ARTS, SPRITUALITY & MEDITATION
ART-MAKING and Art-making meditators
ART --It's Ancient Relationship with Meditation
ART --as True Mystery Opens to Mindfulness Technique
The Benefits to Art-maker's Insight informed Awareness
with NO 'BELIEFS' - just Observing, Watching, Witnessing
Ongoing Reality without 'Beliefs', or buying-in or compromise
"The Purpose of Meditation Training" --Humanitarian-conscious ART-makers who are Activists for global causes-- deeply involved n the midst of our very edgy, over-busy, fearful, survival-stressed Uncertain Times
IF YOU SCROLL N' ROLL AROUND and GRAZE the Pastures On This Webpage -- Follow Some Of It Along -- Besides Details -- There's A Lot of Brief Bits of Language-play and Great Reading In Here To Inspire and Uplift You. Drink Deep and Intelligently Nourish Your Spirit...
‘All-the-time-Awareness’ People
ART Makers / MUSIC Makers / WORD Crafters / DANCE Makers / MOVEMENT-Masters / MAKERS & SHAKERS / HEART-Breakers / more>>
Gifted Maverick People 1-on-1 sessions with Akasa Levi
at “The SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD MENTOR PROJECT” where BUDDHIST COUNSELING + MINDFULNESS MEDITATION Changes Our Whole Relationship to "Reality" Itself !
COUNSELING / THERAPY for "The Suffering Soul of The ARTIST" -- as they once said in La Boheme" the opera -- a truly effective Buddhist-based 'Alternative' that is 'complementary' to psychotherapy for the reviving and setting upright again-- that what was once felt as a Lost, Abandoned Muse, Discomforted Dry Mind, a Wounded Spirit, a Despairing Relationship and many elusive Impasses to Liberated Limitless Creativity. Impasses to Creativity -- All in the midst of our very edgy, over-... more »
“The SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD PROJECT” is a Buddhist-based Psycho/Spiritual oriented Resource, Counseling and Alternative Therapy. The world renown and respected ancient tradition of Buddhist Mindfulness as an applicable psychology, as a path of cultivating a 'transcendent' - a 'higher sanity' - a very clear-seeing ability for yourself. By developing this wisdom understanding, you are now available to generate a much more all-inclusive compassion - which leads to an authentic peace in ourselves, which we can then extend out to our family, friends and the world. Learning and using a 2500 year-old, tested self-development approaches and techniques, towards a clear, wholesome, peaceful, joyful mind.
Traditional contemporary Buddhism is absolutely NOT a ‘religious path’ but more of an empirical, practical, pragmatic, highly intelligent ‘Humanism’.
There are NO gods and NO worship and NO religious superstitions involved in anything we offer, in any way whatsoever. We're about Relevancy and Metaphor - unless you DO want to hear more about it -- Historically it’s very kewl too ! Working Archetype-forms that are really just good subliminal stories -The Buddha ( 528 BC ) himself was an atheist to the bone. There are some challenging bewilderments in Buddhism for the linear literal mind. Zen is founded on it -- Just discovering and uncovering the essence of a sane, wise, peaceful, pure spirit that is YOU.
The ART MAKERs Gifted Maverick People…
Therapy for Artists --a Buddhist-based 'Alternative'
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" HOW TO BECOME THE CLARITY OF YOUR OWN CHOOSING."
Maybe It’s Time You Became A Disciple of *Your Own*Awareness
"Buddhism's all about experiential, natural, uncompromised truth -
-- Buddhism is so much closer to 'science' than it is to 'theology'
To be 'Buddhist' is to be both delightfully perplexed, awakened
and sweetened by the strangely sane, refreshingly
'rational' path Buddha created."
Akasa Levi at BUDDHIST COUNSELING +
MINDFULNESS MEDITATION
Changes Our Whole Relationship to "Reality" Itself !
______________________________________
Certainly you're a very UNCOMMON PERSON ....
"The 'Uncommon Person' Already Feels Different --
in a Very Non-Assimilate-able Way.
We all really do, but for the truly 'uncommon one'
it's sort of a double-whammy to carry!"
UNHAPPY 'UNCOMMON' PEOPLE are sensitive, creative,
individualistic, heart & higher-consciousness oriented people -
artistic, intellectual, mystical, musical, poetic or spiritual.
So you probably need a 'Non-traditional Therapist'
who Understands “non-mainstream”, non-Matrix lifestyles --
and who is deeply empathic and genuinely understands odd,
'uncommon' and ‘unusual’ or ‘non-ordinary’ people -
who are quite unique or gifted, but unhappy.
You in particular,
may want to talk to someone
who has training in both worlds:
psychology AND spirituality.
At “SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD” we offer a uniquely
combined counseling: an innovative, wholistic,
Asian-influenced, , 'spiritual variation' of therapy
based in grounded, practical Buddhist psychology.
Created for intelligent people - sensitive people -
creative people - odd, uncommon people…
" THE GREATEST RISK IS NOT TAKING ONE! "
______________________________________
The SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD PROJECT
Santa Monica • CA 90405 • USA • 1-310-450-2268
This form of Counseling-Therapy can be called many things
• Spiritual-based Counseling • Psycho/Spiritual Coaching
• Spiritual-directed Therapy • Spiritual-oriented Guidance •
• It's been done effectively for 1000's of years ...
( This is not a traditional licensed clinical psychotherapy --
nor is it 'religious' -- it is 'Spiritual', which takes in everything
human culture and thought has ever created )
__________________________________
SOME IMPORTANT Preliminary DETAILS
-- or just skip 'em for now, and Keep Reading ...
• We Counsel both Women and Men
in INDIVIDUAL PERSONAL THERAPY sessions with
a Buddhist-informed theoretical base, as well as
Western contemporary approaches to the mind
and emotions.
• RELATIONSHIP Counseling for Partnerings
of all arrangements and configurations: Be Honst--
Tell the Truth about your 'experience' now --
Couples, Marriages and Family Groups.
Inter-active, face to face, very personal,
‘tough-love’ and often very directive -
when appropriate - in clear,
truthful, effective sessions..
________________
PLEASE NOTE ~
• ALL counseling sessions are 'live' in-office visits. We must limit counseling sessions to
our Southern California LOCAL AREA, mostly greater LOS ANGELES residence-based clients only.
• 'Phone Counseling-sessions' later on, when necessary, will be for 'established clients' with us.
• We offer a First-Time FREE phone consultation to local greater Los Angeles area callers.
We'd certainly need to talk with you on the phone first. It's all about developing a sound 'ground'
of genuine communication -- not for the sake of all sorts of 'rules' and stuff...
Please ASK US PLENTY of QUESTIONS and really feel out if "Spiritual Adulthood" sessions might be for you --
( We can possibly refer you to qualified Buddhist counselors in your own regional area if you email us.)
______________________________________________________________________
• ONGOING REGULAR SESSIONS are by a mutually arranged fee & by appointment only.
• We offer AFFORDABLE NEGOTIABLE Sliding-scale Lower-fee Sessions
for those who really need it. We do not take insurance plans, HMOs etc.
• We offer a much more generous EXTENDED SESSION-TIME than is usual...
ALL sessions are given much more than the standard therapy-hour's time (:55 min ).
We offer you usually about one hour+20 min (:80 min) to allow time to go really
deep as you need to... without feeling cut off or hurried.
• A FIRST-TIME PHONE INQUIRY is always Best & much more immediate for us to respond to --
to your issues & feelings ... ambivalent emails back & forth really does not work well at all.
Please Telephone Us -- we'd need to talk 'live' first, if you sincerely wish to inquire further.
• LOCAL PHONE TIMES: NOON to 6 PM any day is the best time to reach us - 310-450-2268.
AND we just may be in session when you call. Leave a message + local phone number.
If Voice Mail answers, please leave a very complete message with your best phone number(s)
& how long you’ll actually be there. How you can best be reached. Also leave any other
phone numbers, CELL phone number & times we can reach you later on --
and please speak slowly & clearly. It is important that you try your best to
make yourself ‘accessible’, so we can reach you & you can 'reach' yourself !
Please, Make Yourself Easy To Reach.
______________________________________________________________________
" As human beings, our greatness lies
not so much in being able to remake the world...
As in being able to remake ourselves.
Become the changes you want to see in the world" ~ Gandhi
" Begin as creation, become a Creator. Never wait at a barrier " ~ Rumi
"The limits of the possible can only be defined
by going beyond them into the impossible." ~ Arthur C. Clarke
Good, but impossible resolutions, are simply checks
that men draw on a bank where they have no account.
Start with the eminently 'possible'. ~ Oscar Wilde
" While one person hesitates
because they feel insecure and inferior,
the other is busy making mistakes aplenty
and becoming quite superior." ~ The Tao
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CONTACT PERSON: AKASA LEVI, DhMA ~
______________________________________
• Akasa Levi, DhMA (D.Min) resident teacher for spiritual direction ~ 310-450-2268
We practice as Buddhist ministers, not as licensed MFT or PhD clinical psychologists.
We take in a much broader scope than just the psychological. We address the cultivation
of a very contemporary Spirit in the difficult modern society we live in.
Educating the Spirit gives you a wider base to work with.
“DESTINY is every step we’re taking
and going thru right now to get there”
~ Grandfather Bearheart, Creek elder
Appologies About our WEBSITE PAGE
You're invited to visit here, our fledgling web-page in-progress:
http://dharmahere310.blogspot.com
http://buddhistcounselingtherapysantamonica.blogspot.com
So you'll get some more flavor to what our foundational 'meditation philosophy' is all about. It's a more 'radical' form of Buddhism - geared to the arts & free thought-minded. Please enter the Whole URL in as it is a site still in progress. Thanks
By The Way ~ I and some friends on the Way -- returnrd from the Road in the early 80's and started up sitting groups early onand launched scrappy clunky websites-- and fronly nwe never got beyound that point - we still sit meditation in each others houses -- House Sittin Meditation we called it. are an easy-going bunch of Santa Monica Beach Buddhas - and a real bona-fide click n' point fancy 'website' is almost too much extra work for us to get into -- so please pardon us, you gotta scroll down our message, just like this posting page.
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OVERVIEW ...
"There is no such thing as a 'problem'
without a 'gift' for you in its hands.
Sometimes you have problems
because you need their gifts.
It is through gifts that you grow." ~ Richard Bach
THE PROBLEM
• BRING YOU LIFE BACK
FROM THE 'EXILE' OF YOUR SPIRIT
and INTO A SACRED BALANCE AGAIN!
>>> WHATEVER IT IS, YOU'RE "A-NOT-SO-HAPPY-PERSON" <<<
Many, many folks aren’t. We're in very agitated, anxious, turbulent, uncertain times right now. Career and Life-Purpose Despair, Emotional Stuff, Mid-Life Changes or Painful Relationship Dilemmas personally don't make it easier. So please, go 'see' somebody and really start working it out. 'You' - really being heard from way deep inside and coached forward and through by a counseling therapist who can deeply understand you – human to human.
So get out of your own 'protective' self-imposed isolation: “I can do it by myself” mantra - reinforced by ego-pride-shame-hurt-loss-fear-cycles and just put yourself into counseling sessions for awhile. It'll be good for you - you'll get relief and even some joy and laughter. This is where you can work on your stuff and your Soul on a 'frequent enough' basis to make a really noticeable difference. At least phone us. There is no obligation to have a free phone-consultation with us to see if this could feel good and workable for you...
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ARE YOU FEELING ‘DISSED’? ~ DISAPPOINTED DISCOURAGED DISTRESSED Disagreeable Discomforted Disconnected Disconcerted Discontent Disdainful Disgruntled Disgusted Disharmonious and Disheartened -- Disillusioned Disintegrated Distressed Dismayed Dismal Disorganized Disoriented Disregarded Dissatisfied Distant Distraught Distrustful and very Disturbed about it all -- definitely pissed off
This whole ‘Dis’ this or ‘Dis’ that thing - about your life? You CAN change it! We can help and assist you. It's a very old formula for personal challenge - but YOU DO have to show up for yourself to make it happen. Get some Quality Counseling Therapy - somewhere, anywhere - it may be a place for you to start.
Be very welcome to inquire about us.
"Eighty percent of success is just showing up" ~ Woody Allen
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UNCOMMON PEOPLE speak ....
" Every community needs
a group of angelic troublemakers "
~ Bayard Rustin,
black activist social reformer
"Our constant inquiry is our passion
and our passion is our task.
The rest is the madness of art."
~ Henry James, "The Middle Years"
"Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything
that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision
against the play-it-safers, he creatures of the commonplace,
the slaves of the ordinary." ~ Sir Cecil Beaton
"Be not afraid of absurdity -
do not shrink from the fantastic!
Within a dilemma - choose
the most unheard-of,
he most audacious solution!
De l'audace! De l'audace!
Et encore de l'audace!
Be audacious!" ~ Karen Blixen
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More On The UNCOMMON... and again
UNHAPPY 'UNCOMMON' PEOPLE are sensitive, creative,
individualistic, higher-consciousness oriented people -
artistic, intellectual, mystical, musical, poetic or spiritual.
So you probably need a 'Non-traditional Therapist'
who Understands “non-mainstream”, non-Matrix lifestyles --
and who is deeply empathic and genuinely understands
'uncommon' and ‘unusual’ or ‘non-ordinary’ people -
who are quite unique or gifted, but unhappy.
________________________________
• You may be a very 'individual' person who feels very naturally inward, spiritual oriented - and yet you're struggling to get ‘worldly’ problems/emotional issues handled realistically and with integrity as well -- yet without you having to commit to any spiritual path whatsoever!
We offer NO religious preaching or dogma - nothing to ‘believe’ in. Just the emergence of your own individual true ‘knowing’ and personal excellence! We want to assist you in discovering a 'natural unfolding' of unshakable balance, boundless wisdom and joy ! And your innate good humor! Liberating a new sense of caring and connectedness with yourself, other people and the universe. An expanded inner acceptance and outer effectiveness. ‘True’ happiness totally independent of the unavoidable effects of ‘everyday’ circumstances
and conditions! Really 'true freedom' as they've spoken about in Asian teachings for millenia !!
_____________________________________
You may want to talk to someone
who has training in both worlds:
psychology AND spirituality.
At “SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD” we offer
a uniquely combined counseling: an innovative,
wholistic, Asian, 'spiritual variation' of therapy
based in pragmatic, practical Buddhist psychology.
Created for intelligent people - sensitive people -
creative people - odd, uncommon people…
_____________________________
WHAT FOLLOWS IS GOING TO TAKE SOME MORE TIME & SOME MORE PATIENCE ON YOUR PART
TO READ & SORT THRU -- YOU DO NOT HAVE TO READ IT ALL AT ONCE, TAKE IT IN SMALL BITES, SKIP AROUND IN IT -- YOU'LL CERTAINLY KNOW A LOT MORE ABOUT WHAT YOU NEED WHEN YOU'RE DONE READING THIS ...
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A Basic Problem:
Emotions get to run thinking.
Thoughts get so embedded in feelings ~
Confusion, hopeless, numb... angry & sad
MAYBE YOU'VE BECOME
SO OVERWHELMINGLY ‘IDENTIFIED’
OVER-INVOLVED IN YOUR OWN
DIFFICULT 'LIFE-STORY'
That You Just Can’t See
The Forest Because of All The Trees!
Your 'Story' of being such a driven 'winner' or a victimized 'loser' - or just a plain nobody ’out there’ - you're just so overwhelmed - or feeling so isolated -that you just plain 'hurt'. Maybe you’ve lost the path, or forgotten the way, or just feel so ineffective in your 'deeper' inner-search. Or you’ve just never yet really sought out Who ‘You’ really, really are - ‘in here’. Inside.
RE-DISCOVERING and REFINING "Yourself" - totally defined in/on your OWN TERMS ! (not society’s or religion's terms). YOUR Own Terms is what 'therapy of the spirit' is all about ! Therapy of the 'True' Spirit is really where ALL mind/spirit/soul-healing MUST start. True therapy has to start and end with the Heart ! Otherwise it ain't True. It’s been that way in every culture all through time! It's just only that until very recently,
the 'choices' of that healing have always been so restricted and few... either doctors or the church. No longer. Every approach world-wide is now available to you! It's from that Very Big Approach that you can truly find yourself and then truly give back to others in a valuable, clear, easy-going and natural way ... true 'goodness'.
Faith in ourselves simply as Humans restored --and it can be 'spiritual'. AND, Totally NON-RELIGIOUS --Consider that!
__________________________________
“The SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD PROJECT”
is a Buddhist-based Psycho/Spiritual oriented Counseling and Alternative Therapy.
The world renown and respected ancient tradition of Buddhist psychology is a path of cultivating a 'transcendent' - a 'higher sanity' - a very clear-seeing ability for yourself. By developing this wisdom-understanding, you are now available to generate a much more all-inclusive compassion - which leads to an authentic peace in ourselves, which we can then extend out to our family, friends and the world. Learning & using 2500 year-old tested self-development approaches and techniques towards a clear, wholesome, peaceful, joyful mind. Traditional Buddhism is absolutely NOT a‘religious path’ but more of a practical, pragmatic, highly intelligent ‘Humanism’ - there are NO gods and NO worship or NO religious superstitions involved in anything we offer in any way whatsoever. Just discovering and uncovering the essence of a sane, wise, peaceful, pure spirit that is YOU.
_____________________________
“And then the day came
when the risk to remain
tight in a bud was more painful
than the risk it took to blossom” ~ Anais Nin
_________________________________
" FORGIVENESS Is Giving Up
All Hope For A Better Past! " ~ Aba Gayle
____________________________________
“ BREAKDOWN often PRECEEDS BREAKTHROUGH.. “
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A JOYFUL DISCLAIMER and A Statement of Philosophy ...
Who We Are In Our Hearts and In Our Heads
as a 'Spiritually-Based' Counseling Service ~
Akasa's Theory of Everything --
Now Go Home and Leave me alone --
Just a Bad day with Truth, and without Charm...
We are truly 'non-denominational' and 'non-religious' and offfer an inclusive welcome eo all Journeyers of all Ways, or especially even those of no way. 'Spiritual' doesn't mean 'Religion'. Actually, you can't even become a 'Buddhist', as that too is just another appelation --a 'Label'. We've turned Words into Things. Something to lean on.Safe.
Theory of Everything -- The ONE Web of existence, the 'Conscious-Life' part of the web that has the conditions to support LIFE. That's THAT. That's ALL. It's Alive. Lif e-consciousness gone 'Live' has many 'Names' in many different world cultures. The ONE Web 'itself', really has NO name at all -- YHVH -- All cultures on the planet call it ‘The One’ ( 1. ) So we just simply call it "EVERYTHING". All of 'Creation' itself. ‘Creator’ and ‘Creation’ is all the same thing, the same One. We simply leave it at that. Adoni Eluhanu Adoni Eckhud -- One is One and there is nothing outside of it. It's All ONE. You gotta’ love it all. NOW --
We try to love it All. Most of the time, piece by piece in peace. If Done, press DONE.If next press Next or Submit. This can go on forever. It was planned that way. That's how we got here.
" There is no such thing as a strictly 'secular' therapy - or that a therapy is 'non-spiritual' .. That’s where Medical Mental Sciences are naïve. EVERY 'therapy' is spiritual if it deals with matters of the heart and emotions and feelings. Buddhist approaches in particular, are 'spiritual' BUT non-religious. The historical Buddha was a Humanist & a Pragmatist. There's a freedom of intelligence & openness to that - a big difference. "
We particularly use the 'Buddhist brand-name' because those Asian cultures have got some of the most skillfully mature, very grounded, least misleading, most inclusive and the very best of the mind-healing techniques available so far - so far as we've come across. So we use 'em. And we're still strongly very eclectic: we use many diverse approaches - so we'll use what YOU need, not what 'we' like best or 'believe in'. We're on your side! We practice as Buddhist ministers not as licensed MFT , LCSW, PhD or clinical psychologists.
_____________________________________________________________
• BIOGRAPHY: AKASA LEVI, DhMA (D.Min) - our counseling therapist/facilitator -
________________________________________________________________
Now 64 - Akasa Levi was an ordained American Theravada Buddhist forest monk in the 1970's
during a decade of living in Asia. He was a student of the renown Goenkaji in Bodhgaya-India,
where the famous Bodhi Tree the Buddha sat under is. He then became a student of Tibetan
Lama Thubten Yeshe & Zopa Rinpoche of Nepal, founders of Wisdom Publications in Boston
(www.wisdompubs.org) and Advaita master Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj in Bombay.
Akasa was in seminary & ordained by Sangha Nayake Ananda Maitreya, lineage-head of the
Amarapura Burmese Sect in Sri Lanka. He studied Western analytic therapy at UCLA after
returning to Western culture. Akasa practices therapy in Santa Monica California, USA.
He teaches a non-religious style of Buddhist group meditation with The Laughing Buddha Sangha --
and leads men’s groups at The L.A. Medicine Men’s Lodge which he founded. Otherwise this
old ‘tribal elder’ can be found in his garden or out dancing. Gardens & Dancing are his two
favorite metaphors.
Full biography & possibly a photo at http://www.zentrance.com (enter it all in)
• For Other Information - Please visit our shared meditation web site at
The LA Dharma Community under The Laughing Buddha Sangha
http://www.LADharma.org under Links/Teacher Links
We'll gladly give you a FREELY offered Local Phone Consultation – no obligation!
-- or to set up an actual appointment.
• 310-450-2268 ~ PLEASE USE THE PHONE, as there is NOT much else we can tell you by email.
The phone is more personal - and some quality 'personal attention' is probably what you need
for yourself right now -- more 'closeness' rather than distance...
We know that when you're feeling vulnerable, skittish or just plain bad & sad --
sometimes 'reaching out' is hard -- please, do take up the challenge!
"Take the first step in faith.
You don't have to see the whole staircase
-- just take the first step."
~ Martin Luther King
"If you do not see God in the next person
you meet, you need look no further."
~ Gandhi
__________________________
“La vraie générosité envers l'avenir
consiste à tout donner au présent.”
“True generosity towards the future
is to give everything to the present.”
~ Albert Camus
" THE GREATEST RISK IS NOT TAKING ONE! "
___________________________________
“The SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD PROJECT
is a Member of S.E.N.
(Spiritual Emergency Network
at Esalen Institute in Big Sur).
We are an outreach-project of
“The Laughing Buddha Sangha”
in Santa Monica, California.
We are affiliated with
The L.A. Dharma Community
( visit our collective website
www.LADharma.org ) and utilize
the practice-approaches offered by
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
in Woodacre/Santa Rosa, CA.
We are non-denominational ,
definately non-religious and
welcome all journeyers
of all Ways or even none.
______________________
QUOTES ~ The Gift of Wise Words
“Whatever the Question ~
Love and Kindness is the answer!”
~ The Dalai Lama
To measure you by your smallest deed
is to judge the ocean by the frailty of it's foam.
To judge you by your failures is to cast blame
upon the seasons for their inconsistencies
~ Kahlil Gibran
What good you do is of little significance,
But it is very important that you do it.
WE Must BE the change we want to see in the world "
~ Mahatma Gandhi
______________________________
"If we have no peace, it is because
we have forgotten that
we belong to each other."
~ Mother Teresa
"Wise, clear understanding is key
to the dissolution of all ignorances --
Then be Kind whenever possible.
It is always possible."
~ Dalai Lama
"One common mistake is to think
that your reality is THE reality.
You must always be prepared to
leave your reality for a greater one."
~ Amaji Meera
"You yourself,
as much as anyone in the entire Universe,
deserves your OWN affection, care and love.
You can explore the whole universe looking
for someone who is more deserving of your
love and affection than you are yourself...
and you will not find that person anywhere.
To be maximum effective -
the Practice of Loving-Kindness
must absolutely begin with yourself!" ~ The Buddha
___________________________________
“Who was born first, 'You' or 'The World'?
As long as you give first place to ‘The World’
-- you are bound by it.
Once you realize, beyond all trace of doubt,
that the ‘world’ is in you --
-- and not 'you' in the world,
right then and there, you are out of it.
Of course, your body remains in the world
and 'of' the world,
but YOU are not >d-e-l-u-d-e-d< by it.”
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
________________________________________________
“If you don't understand that ‘whatever’ appears IS meditation --
what can you achieve by applying an ‘antidote’?
Perceptions and conceptions, false ideas and notions
are not abandoned by discarding them --
but are 'spontaneously freed' when recognized
and 'realized' as only an Illusion." ~ Niguma Dakini
________________________________________
They drew a circle that shut me out --
Calling me a heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win --
We drew a circle that took them in.
~ Edwin Markham "Outwitted"
A Sufi sage once said ~
"The best thing is not to hate anyone --
Only to Love.
That is the only way out of it.
As soon as you have Forgiven
those whom you intensely hate --
You have simply gotten rid of them!
Then you have no reason to 'hate' them --
You just forget."
~ Hazrat Inayat Khan
"Do not look back in Anger,
or forward in Fear,
but around in Awareness" ~ James Thurber
"At night make me fearlessly one with the darkness ~
In the morning make me optimistically one with the light"
~ Wendell Berry
__________________________________________________________
You may want to hi-lite, copy & send this quote below to people you know...
some of the wisest guidance you'll ever read, put to personal use or offer.
__________________________________________________
here it is ~
"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart.
Try to love the 'Questions' themselves - like locked rooms
and like books that are written in a foreign language.
Do not, just right now, seek for the Answers.
The 'Answers' which cannot now be given to you -
because you would not be able to actually ‘live’ them.
And the point is to ‘live’ everything - experiencing everything.
At present, you need to live the Questions themselves.
Perhaps you will then gradually, without even noticing it,
live along some day into the true Answer. Your answer."
~ Rilke's "Letters to a Young Poet" (1903-1908)
end
balance is unfinihed
___________________________
and Good Old Buddhist BOOK List update 10. 2016.docx
http://buddhistmeditationsantamonica.blogspot.com/
Maybe some pieces & parts of what follows, is also what may be going on with you...
ARE YOU HAVING A SPIRITUAL CRISIS: a ‘SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY’? An emergency of your spirit? Are you having an authentic ‘SPIRITUAL EMERGENCE’?
A true ‘EXISTENTIAL CRISIS of sorts? A crisis of your very 'Being-ness'? Or a Spiritual Break-through and Emergence? Which? Are your values & views gradually or radically changing? Wanting to genuinely 'upgrade' your consciousness? Going towards the authentically 'Spiritual' and not just some sort of delusive 'magical-thinking'? How to know? Are you stuck? Are you feeling a bit helpless, powerless - out of balance - frustrated - going thru difficult changes? Loss of purpose? Confused? Moody? Disturbing emotional swings?Dead-ended? What to do -- where to fit in -- how to make it all work out? Who with experience can you talk and relate to about it? We offer counseling and therapy for people who are beginning the really 'higher process' of change where it merges with the spiritual. You may need to talk to someone who has training in both worlds: psychology AND spirituality.
we also offer to the community ~
• Creatively-minded Corporate/Business Consultation: Human Resource Resolution
and 'Spirit In The Workplace' development. Very way out of the box stuff. We also consult
on the American 'spiritual mind-set', 'The Crisis In Faith', 'Loss of Classical Mythologies
to Technology', 'What's Wrong With Our Minds & Culture?' and current 'religious trends'
(a lot of it quite unconscious, un self-identified & dreadfully naive) within the
contemporary American/Western cultural praadigm as a whole.
• We Counsel all manifestations of alternative & emerging life-styles: mixed racial/religious
partnerings & marriages; gay & bi curious, str8 still exploring. It's the 21st Century:
It's a big wide open world out there now... We offer bridge-building between communities:
people of all colors, religions, diverse cultures & ethnic origins. A pluralistic society brings
so many awesome enrichments as well as struggles of balance & new found respect ...
Or maybe..
SO YOU’RE EVOLVING SPIRITUALLY and YOU’RE CURRENT ‘REGULAR’-STYLE THERAPIST JUST ISN’T on your track, doesn't seem to 'get' you - sorry, but he/she is just not! They may give you a nod of support to your 'spiritual pursuits' but can offer not much else in that direction. Here too, you may need to talk to someone who has training in both worlds - psychology and spirituality.
Do you have unresolved feelings, unusual/disturbing states of consciousness, or deep questionings around your present ongoing spiritual growth process now? What now? We offer experienced understanding, caring assistance, careful explanations and understandings, and crisis counseling for people to sort through and integrate a wide range of feelings that may have arisen: exploring both the dark and the light side - quite transformative in itself -- emerging with a new sense of clarity and well-being.
“It is still up to you to choose
to join with ‘truth’ or with ‘illusion’.
But remember that to choose one
is to let go of the other.
When the way comes to an end,
then Change -
having changed, you pass through." ~ The Tao
MENTORING ~ Mentorship is a Relationship --post--
Akasa Levi at BUDDHIST COUNSELING + MINDFULNESS MEDITATION Changes Our Whole Relationship to "Reality" Itself ! -
*Mentorship is a Relationship* *"* Mentoring" is a process that *always* involves communication and is strongly relationship-based..." This good, seminal article is writen like a personal reflection or opinion essay that states the *Wikipedia editor's personal feelings
Akasa Levi at BUDDHIST COUNSELING + MINDFULNESS MEDITATION Changes Our Whole Relationship to "Reality" Itself ! - 3 months ago
we also offer to the community ~
• Creatively-minded Corporate/Business Consultation: Human Resource Resolution
and 'Spirit In The Workplace' development. Very way out of the box stuff. We also consult
on the American 'spiritual mind-set', 'The Crisis In Faith', 'Loss of Classical Mythologies
to Technology', 'What's Wrong With Our Minds & Culture?' and current 'religious trends'
(a lot of it quite unconscious, un self-identified & dreadfully naive) within the
contemporary American/Western cultural praadigm as a whole.
• We Counsel all manifestations of alternative & emerging life-styles: mixed racial/religious
partnerings & marriages; gay & bi curious, str8 still exploring. It's the 21st Century:
It's a big wide open world out there now... We offer bridge-building between communities:
people of all colors, religions, diverse cultures & ethnic origins. A pluralistic society brings
so many awesome enrichments as well as struggles of balance & new found respect ...
END
What is POETRY ? What is your current medium ?
"Poetry has an immediate
effect on the mind. The simple act of reading poetry silently or out loud --alters thought patterns
and the rhythm of breath. Poetry induces trance. Its words are chant. Its
rhythms are drumbeats. Its images become the icons of the inner eye -- the transformational power of poetry. The
ways poetry naturally expresses the sacred experience, the non-dogmatic nature
of poetry. Poetry is more than a description of the sacred experience -- it
carries the Experience itself." ~
Ivan Granger
-----------------------------------------------------------------• COUNSELING THERAPY for The ARTIST:doc
All our individual rambling stories begin with a 'Search' --
Spiritually speaking, that's a very classic way to start.
At one's Core, something got lost and one goes out
to try'n find it. Don't we all kinda' relate with that ?
The ART MAKERS and other
Aware Gifted Maverick People
• COUNSELING THERAPY for The ARTIST:
an effective Buddhist-based 'Alternative'
to psychotherapy for the Discomforted Mind,
Wounded Spirit, Despairing Relationship and
elusive Impasses to Liberated Limitless Creativity.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
buddhistcounselingtherapysantamonica.blogspot.com.
..... The ARTS, SPRITUALITY & MEDITATION
ART-MAKING and Art-making meditators
ART --It's Ancient Relationship with Meditation
ART --as True Mystery Opens to Mindfulness Technique
The Benefits to Art-maker's Insight informed Awareness
with NO 'BELIEFS' - just Observing, Watching, Witnessing
Ongoing Reality without 'Beliefs', or buying-in or compromise
"The Purpose of Meditation Training" --Humanitarian-conscious ART-makers who are Activists for global causes-- deeply involved n the midst of our very edgy, over-busy, fearful, survival-stressed Uncertain Times
IF YOU SCROLL N' ROLL AROUND and GRAZE the Pastures On This Webpage -- Follow Some Of It Along -- Besides Details -- There's A Lot of Brief Bits of Language-play and Great Reading In Here To Inspire and Uplift You. Drink Deep and Intelligently Nourish Your Spirit...
‘All-the-time-Awareness’ People
ART Makers / MUSIC Makers / WORD Crafters / DANCE Makers / MOVEMENT-Masters / MAKERS & SHAKERS / HEART-Breakers / more>>
Gifted Maverick People 1-on-1 sessions with Akasa Levi
at “The SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD MENTOR PROJECT” where BUDDHIST COUNSELING + MINDFULNESS MEDITATION Changes Our Whole Relationship to "Reality" Itself !
COUNSELING / THERAPY for "The Suffering Soul of The ARTIST" -- as they once said in La Boheme" the opera -- a truly effective Buddhist-based 'Alternative' that is 'complementary' to psychotherapy for the reviving and setting upright again-- that what was once felt as a Lost, Abandoned Muse, Discomforted Dry Mind, a Wounded Spirit, a Despairing Relationship and many elusive Impasses to Liberated Limitless Creativity. Impasses to Creativity -- All in the midst of our very edgy, over-... more »
“The SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD PROJECT” is a Buddhist-based Psycho/Spiritual oriented Resource, Counseling and Alternative Therapy. The world renown and respected ancient tradition of Buddhist Mindfulness as an applicable psychology, as a path of cultivating a 'transcendent' - a 'higher sanity' - a very clear-seeing ability for yourself. By developing this wisdom understanding, you are now available to generate a much more all-inclusive compassion - which leads to an authentic peace in ourselves, which we can then extend out to our family, friends and the world. Learning and using a 2500 year-old, tested self-development approaches and techniques, towards a clear, wholesome, peaceful, joyful mind.
Traditional contemporary Buddhism is absolutely NOT a ‘religious path’ but more of an empirical, practical, pragmatic, highly intelligent ‘Humanism’.
There are NO gods and NO worship and NO religious superstitions involved in anything we offer, in any way whatsoever. We're about Relevancy and Metaphor - unless you DO want to hear more about it -- Historically it’s very kewl too ! Working Archetype-forms that are really just good subliminal stories -The Buddha ( 528 BC ) himself was an atheist to the bone. There are some challenging bewilderments in Buddhism for the linear literal mind. Zen is founded on it -- Just discovering and uncovering the essence of a sane, wise, peaceful, pure spirit that is YOU.
The ART MAKERs Gifted Maverick People…
Therapy for Artists --a Buddhist-based 'Alternative'
___________________________________________
" HOW TO BECOME THE CLARITY OF YOUR OWN CHOOSING."
Maybe It’s Time You Became A Disciple of *Your Own*Awareness
"Buddhism's all about experiential, natural, uncompromised truth -
-- Buddhism is so much closer to 'science' than it is to 'theology'
To be 'Buddhist' is to be both delightfully perplexed, awakened
and sweetened by the strangely sane, refreshingly
'rational' path Buddha created."
Akasa Levi at BUDDHIST COUNSELING +
MINDFULNESS MEDITATION
Changes Our Whole Relationship to "Reality" Itself !
______________________________________
Certainly you're a very UNCOMMON PERSON ....
"The 'Uncommon Person' Already Feels Different --
in a Very Non-Assimilate-able Way.
We all really do, but for the truly 'uncommon one'
it's sort of a double-whammy to carry!"
UNHAPPY 'UNCOMMON' PEOPLE are sensitive, creative,
individualistic, heart & higher-consciousness oriented people -
artistic, intellectual, mystical, musical, poetic or spiritual.
So you probably need a 'Non-traditional Therapist'
who Understands “non-mainstream”, non-Matrix lifestyles --
and who is deeply empathic and genuinely understands odd,
'uncommon' and ‘unusual’ or ‘non-ordinary’ people -
who are quite unique or gifted, but unhappy.
You in particular,
may want to talk to someone
who has training in both worlds:
psychology AND spirituality.
At “SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD” we offer a uniquely
combined counseling: an innovative, wholistic,
Asian-influenced, , 'spiritual variation' of therapy
based in grounded, practical Buddhist psychology.
Created for intelligent people - sensitive people -
creative people - odd, uncommon people…
" THE GREATEST RISK IS NOT TAKING ONE! "
______________________________________
The SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD PROJECT
Santa Monica • CA 90405 • USA • 1-310-450-2268
This form of Counseling-Therapy can be called many things
• Spiritual-based Counseling • Psycho/Spiritual Coaching
• Spiritual-directed Therapy • Spiritual-oriented Guidance •
• It's been done effectively for 1000's of years ...
( This is not a traditional licensed clinical psychotherapy --
nor is it 'religious' -- it is 'Spiritual', which takes in everything
human culture and thought has ever created )
__________________________________
SOME IMPORTANT Preliminary DETAILS
-- or just skip 'em for now, and Keep Reading ...
• We Counsel both Women and Men
in INDIVIDUAL PERSONAL THERAPY sessions with
a Buddhist-informed theoretical base, as well as
Western contemporary approaches to the mind
and emotions.
• RELATIONSHIP Counseling for Partnerings
of all arrangements and configurations: Be Honst--
Tell the Truth about your 'experience' now --
Couples, Marriages and Family Groups.
Inter-active, face to face, very personal,
‘tough-love’ and often very directive -
when appropriate - in clear,
truthful, effective sessions..
________________
PLEASE NOTE ~
• ALL counseling sessions are 'live' in-office visits. We must limit counseling sessions to
our Southern California LOCAL AREA, mostly greater LOS ANGELES residence-based clients only.
• 'Phone Counseling-sessions' later on, when necessary, will be for 'established clients' with us.
• We offer a First-Time FREE phone consultation to local greater Los Angeles area callers.
We'd certainly need to talk with you on the phone first. It's all about developing a sound 'ground'
of genuine communication -- not for the sake of all sorts of 'rules' and stuff...
Please ASK US PLENTY of QUESTIONS and really feel out if "Spiritual Adulthood" sessions might be for you --
( We can possibly refer you to qualified Buddhist counselors in your own regional area if you email us.)
______________________________________________________________________
• ONGOING REGULAR SESSIONS are by a mutually arranged fee & by appointment only.
• We offer AFFORDABLE NEGOTIABLE Sliding-scale Lower-fee Sessions
for those who really need it. We do not take insurance plans, HMOs etc.
• We offer a much more generous EXTENDED SESSION-TIME than is usual...
ALL sessions are given much more than the standard therapy-hour's time (:55 min ).
We offer you usually about one hour+20 min (:80 min) to allow time to go really
deep as you need to... without feeling cut off or hurried.
• A FIRST-TIME PHONE INQUIRY is always Best & much more immediate for us to respond to --
to your issues & feelings ... ambivalent emails back & forth really does not work well at all.
Please Telephone Us -- we'd need to talk 'live' first, if you sincerely wish to inquire further.
• LOCAL PHONE TIMES: NOON to 6 PM any day is the best time to reach us - 310-450-2268.
AND we just may be in session when you call. Leave a message + local phone number.
If Voice Mail answers, please leave a very complete message with your best phone number(s)
& how long you’ll actually be there. How you can best be reached. Also leave any other
phone numbers, CELL phone number & times we can reach you later on --
and please speak slowly & clearly. It is important that you try your best to
make yourself ‘accessible’, so we can reach you & you can 'reach' yourself !
Please, Make Yourself Easy To Reach.
______________________________________________________________________
" As human beings, our greatness lies
not so much in being able to remake the world...
As in being able to remake ourselves.
Become the changes you want to see in the world" ~ Gandhi
" Begin as creation, become a Creator. Never wait at a barrier " ~ Rumi
"The limits of the possible can only be defined
by going beyond them into the impossible." ~ Arthur C. Clarke
Good, but impossible resolutions, are simply checks
that men draw on a bank where they have no account.
Start with the eminently 'possible'. ~ Oscar Wilde
" While one person hesitates
because they feel insecure and inferior,
the other is busy making mistakes aplenty
and becoming quite superior." ~ The Tao
___________________________________
CONTACT PERSON: AKASA LEVI, DhMA ~
______________________________________
• Akasa Levi, DhMA (D.Min) resident teacher for spiritual direction ~ 310-450-2268
We practice as Buddhist ministers, not as licensed MFT or PhD clinical psychologists.
We take in a much broader scope than just the psychological. We address the cultivation
of a very contemporary Spirit in the difficult modern society we live in.
Educating the Spirit gives you a wider base to work with.
“DESTINY is every step we’re taking
and going thru right now to get there”
~ Grandfather Bearheart, Creek elder
Appologies About our WEBSITE PAGE
You're invited to visit here, our fledgling web-page in-progress:
http://dharmahere310.blogspot.com
http://buddhistcounselingtherapysantamonica.blogspot.com
So you'll get some more flavor to what our foundational 'meditation philosophy' is all about. It's a more 'radical' form of Buddhism - geared to the arts & free thought-minded. Please enter the Whole URL in as it is a site still in progress. Thanks
By The Way ~ I and some friends on the Way -- returnrd from the Road in the early 80's and started up sitting groups early onand launched scrappy clunky websites-- and fronly nwe never got beyound that point - we still sit meditation in each others houses -- House Sittin Meditation we called it. are an easy-going bunch of Santa Monica Beach Buddhas - and a real bona-fide click n' point fancy 'website' is almost too much extra work for us to get into -- so please pardon us, you gotta scroll down our message, just like this posting page.
______________________________________________________________________
OVERVIEW ...
"There is no such thing as a 'problem'
without a 'gift' for you in its hands.
Sometimes you have problems
because you need their gifts.
It is through gifts that you grow." ~ Richard Bach
THE PROBLEM
• BRING YOU LIFE BACK
FROM THE 'EXILE' OF YOUR SPIRIT
and INTO A SACRED BALANCE AGAIN!
>>> WHATEVER IT IS, YOU'RE "A-NOT-SO-HAPPY-PERSON" <<<
Many, many folks aren’t. We're in very agitated, anxious, turbulent, uncertain times right now. Career and Life-Purpose Despair, Emotional Stuff, Mid-Life Changes or Painful Relationship Dilemmas personally don't make it easier. So please, go 'see' somebody and really start working it out. 'You' - really being heard from way deep inside and coached forward and through by a counseling therapist who can deeply understand you – human to human.
So get out of your own 'protective' self-imposed isolation: “I can do it by myself” mantra - reinforced by ego-pride-shame-hurt-loss-fear-cycles and just put yourself into counseling sessions for awhile. It'll be good for you - you'll get relief and even some joy and laughter. This is where you can work on your stuff and your Soul on a 'frequent enough' basis to make a really noticeable difference. At least phone us. There is no obligation to have a free phone-consultation with us to see if this could feel good and workable for you...
_______________________________________________________
ARE YOU FEELING ‘DISSED’? ~ DISAPPOINTED DISCOURAGED DISTRESSED Disagreeable Discomforted Disconnected Disconcerted Discontent Disdainful Disgruntled Disgusted Disharmonious and Disheartened -- Disillusioned Disintegrated Distressed Dismayed Dismal Disorganized Disoriented Disregarded Dissatisfied Distant Distraught Distrustful and very Disturbed about it all -- definitely pissed off
This whole ‘Dis’ this or ‘Dis’ that thing - about your life? You CAN change it! We can help and assist you. It's a very old formula for personal challenge - but YOU DO have to show up for yourself to make it happen. Get some Quality Counseling Therapy - somewhere, anywhere - it may be a place for you to start.
Be very welcome to inquire about us.
"Eighty percent of success is just showing up" ~ Woody Allen
________________________________________________
UNCOMMON PEOPLE speak ....
" Every community needs
a group of angelic troublemakers "
~ Bayard Rustin,
black activist social reformer
"Our constant inquiry is our passion
and our passion is our task.
The rest is the madness of art."
~ Henry James, "The Middle Years"
"Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything
that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision
against the play-it-safers, he creatures of the commonplace,
the slaves of the ordinary." ~ Sir Cecil Beaton
"Be not afraid of absurdity -
do not shrink from the fantastic!
Within a dilemma - choose
the most unheard-of,
he most audacious solution!
De l'audace! De l'audace!
Et encore de l'audace!
Be audacious!" ~ Karen Blixen
_________________________________________________
More On The UNCOMMON... and again
UNHAPPY 'UNCOMMON' PEOPLE are sensitive, creative,
individualistic, higher-consciousness oriented people -
artistic, intellectual, mystical, musical, poetic or spiritual.
So you probably need a 'Non-traditional Therapist'
who Understands “non-mainstream”, non-Matrix lifestyles --
and who is deeply empathic and genuinely understands
'uncommon' and ‘unusual’ or ‘non-ordinary’ people -
who are quite unique or gifted, but unhappy.
________________________________
• You may be a very 'individual' person who feels very naturally inward, spiritual oriented - and yet you're struggling to get ‘worldly’ problems/emotional issues handled realistically and with integrity as well -- yet without you having to commit to any spiritual path whatsoever!
We offer NO religious preaching or dogma - nothing to ‘believe’ in. Just the emergence of your own individual true ‘knowing’ and personal excellence! We want to assist you in discovering a 'natural unfolding' of unshakable balance, boundless wisdom and joy ! And your innate good humor! Liberating a new sense of caring and connectedness with yourself, other people and the universe. An expanded inner acceptance and outer effectiveness. ‘True’ happiness totally independent of the unavoidable effects of ‘everyday’ circumstances
and conditions! Really 'true freedom' as they've spoken about in Asian teachings for millenia !!
_____________________________________
You may want to talk to someone
who has training in both worlds:
psychology AND spirituality.
At “SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD” we offer
a uniquely combined counseling: an innovative,
wholistic, Asian, 'spiritual variation' of therapy
based in pragmatic, practical Buddhist psychology.
Created for intelligent people - sensitive people -
creative people - odd, uncommon people…
_____________________________
WHAT FOLLOWS IS GOING TO TAKE SOME MORE TIME & SOME MORE PATIENCE ON YOUR PART
TO READ & SORT THRU -- YOU DO NOT HAVE TO READ IT ALL AT ONCE, TAKE IT IN SMALL BITES, SKIP AROUND IN IT -- YOU'LL CERTAINLY KNOW A LOT MORE ABOUT WHAT YOU NEED WHEN YOU'RE DONE READING THIS ...
______________________________________
A Basic Problem:
Emotions get to run thinking.
Thoughts get so embedded in feelings ~
Confusion, hopeless, numb... angry & sad
MAYBE YOU'VE BECOME
SO OVERWHELMINGLY ‘IDENTIFIED’
OVER-INVOLVED IN YOUR OWN
DIFFICULT 'LIFE-STORY'
That You Just Can’t See
The Forest Because of All The Trees!
Your 'Story' of being such a driven 'winner' or a victimized 'loser' - or just a plain nobody ’out there’ - you're just so overwhelmed - or feeling so isolated -that you just plain 'hurt'. Maybe you’ve lost the path, or forgotten the way, or just feel so ineffective in your 'deeper' inner-search. Or you’ve just never yet really sought out Who ‘You’ really, really are - ‘in here’. Inside.
RE-DISCOVERING and REFINING "Yourself" - totally defined in/on your OWN TERMS ! (not society’s or religion's terms). YOUR Own Terms is what 'therapy of the spirit' is all about ! Therapy of the 'True' Spirit is really where ALL mind/spirit/soul-healing MUST start. True therapy has to start and end with the Heart ! Otherwise it ain't True. It’s been that way in every culture all through time! It's just only that until very recently,
the 'choices' of that healing have always been so restricted and few... either doctors or the church. No longer. Every approach world-wide is now available to you! It's from that Very Big Approach that you can truly find yourself and then truly give back to others in a valuable, clear, easy-going and natural way ... true 'goodness'.
Faith in ourselves simply as Humans restored --and it can be 'spiritual'. AND, Totally NON-RELIGIOUS --Consider that!
__________________________________
“The SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD PROJECT”
is a Buddhist-based Psycho/Spiritual oriented Counseling and Alternative Therapy.
The world renown and respected ancient tradition of Buddhist psychology is a path of cultivating a 'transcendent' - a 'higher sanity' - a very clear-seeing ability for yourself. By developing this wisdom-understanding, you are now available to generate a much more all-inclusive compassion - which leads to an authentic peace in ourselves, which we can then extend out to our family, friends and the world. Learning & using 2500 year-old tested self-development approaches and techniques towards a clear, wholesome, peaceful, joyful mind. Traditional Buddhism is absolutely NOT a‘religious path’ but more of a practical, pragmatic, highly intelligent ‘Humanism’ - there are NO gods and NO worship or NO religious superstitions involved in anything we offer in any way whatsoever. Just discovering and uncovering the essence of a sane, wise, peaceful, pure spirit that is YOU.
_____________________________
“And then the day came
when the risk to remain
tight in a bud was more painful
than the risk it took to blossom” ~ Anais Nin
_________________________________
" FORGIVENESS Is Giving Up
All Hope For A Better Past! " ~ Aba Gayle
____________________________________
“ BREAKDOWN often PRECEEDS BREAKTHROUGH.. “
______________________________________________
A JOYFUL DISCLAIMER and A Statement of Philosophy ...
Who We Are In Our Hearts and In Our Heads
as a 'Spiritually-Based' Counseling Service ~
Akasa's Theory of Everything --
Now Go Home and Leave me alone --
Just a Bad day with Truth, and without Charm...
We are truly 'non-denominational' and 'non-religious' and offfer an inclusive welcome eo all Journeyers of all Ways, or especially even those of no way. 'Spiritual' doesn't mean 'Religion'. Actually, you can't even become a 'Buddhist', as that too is just another appelation --a 'Label'. We've turned Words into Things. Something to lean on.Safe.
Theory of Everything -- The ONE Web of existence, the 'Conscious-Life' part of the web that has the conditions to support LIFE. That's THAT. That's ALL. It's Alive. Lif e-consciousness gone 'Live' has many 'Names' in many different world cultures. The ONE Web 'itself', really has NO name at all -- YHVH -- All cultures on the planet call it ‘The One’ ( 1. ) So we just simply call it "EVERYTHING". All of 'Creation' itself. ‘Creator’ and ‘Creation’ is all the same thing, the same One. We simply leave it at that. Adoni Eluhanu Adoni Eckhud -- One is One and there is nothing outside of it. It's All ONE. You gotta’ love it all. NOW --
We try to love it All. Most of the time, piece by piece in peace. If Done, press DONE.If next press Next or Submit. This can go on forever. It was planned that way. That's how we got here.
" There is no such thing as a strictly 'secular' therapy - or that a therapy is 'non-spiritual' .. That’s where Medical Mental Sciences are naïve. EVERY 'therapy' is spiritual if it deals with matters of the heart and emotions and feelings. Buddhist approaches in particular, are 'spiritual' BUT non-religious. The historical Buddha was a Humanist & a Pragmatist. There's a freedom of intelligence & openness to that - a big difference. "
We particularly use the 'Buddhist brand-name' because those Asian cultures have got some of the most skillfully mature, very grounded, least misleading, most inclusive and the very best of the mind-healing techniques available so far - so far as we've come across. So we use 'em. And we're still strongly very eclectic: we use many diverse approaches - so we'll use what YOU need, not what 'we' like best or 'believe in'. We're on your side! We practice as Buddhist ministers not as licensed MFT , LCSW, PhD or clinical psychologists.
_____________________________________________________________
• BIOGRAPHY: AKASA LEVI, DhMA (D.Min) - our counseling therapist/facilitator -
________________________________________________________________
Now 64 - Akasa Levi was an ordained American Theravada Buddhist forest monk in the 1970's
during a decade of living in Asia. He was a student of the renown Goenkaji in Bodhgaya-India,
where the famous Bodhi Tree the Buddha sat under is. He then became a student of Tibetan
Lama Thubten Yeshe & Zopa Rinpoche of Nepal, founders of Wisdom Publications in Boston
(www.wisdompubs.org) and Advaita master Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj in Bombay.
Akasa was in seminary & ordained by Sangha Nayake Ananda Maitreya, lineage-head of the
Amarapura Burmese Sect in Sri Lanka. He studied Western analytic therapy at UCLA after
returning to Western culture. Akasa practices therapy in Santa Monica California, USA.
He teaches a non-religious style of Buddhist group meditation with The Laughing Buddha Sangha --
and leads men’s groups at The L.A. Medicine Men’s Lodge which he founded. Otherwise this
old ‘tribal elder’ can be found in his garden or out dancing. Gardens & Dancing are his two
favorite metaphors.
Full biography & possibly a photo at http://www.zentrance.com (enter it all in)
• For Other Information - Please visit our shared meditation web site at
The LA Dharma Community under The Laughing Buddha Sangha
http://www.LADharma.org under Links/Teacher Links
We'll gladly give you a FREELY offered Local Phone Consultation – no obligation!
-- or to set up an actual appointment.
• 310-450-2268 ~ PLEASE USE THE PHONE, as there is NOT much else we can tell you by email.
The phone is more personal - and some quality 'personal attention' is probably what you need
for yourself right now -- more 'closeness' rather than distance...
We know that when you're feeling vulnerable, skittish or just plain bad & sad --
sometimes 'reaching out' is hard -- please, do take up the challenge!
"Take the first step in faith.
You don't have to see the whole staircase
-- just take the first step."
~ Martin Luther King
"If you do not see God in the next person
you meet, you need look no further."
~ Gandhi
__________________________
“La vraie générosité envers l'avenir
consiste à tout donner au présent.”
“True generosity towards the future
is to give everything to the present.”
~ Albert Camus
" THE GREATEST RISK IS NOT TAKING ONE! "
___________________________________
“The SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD PROJECT
is a Member of S.E.N.
(Spiritual Emergency Network
at Esalen Institute in Big Sur).
We are an outreach-project of
“The Laughing Buddha Sangha”
in Santa Monica, California.
We are affiliated with
The L.A. Dharma Community
( visit our collective website
www.LADharma.org ) and utilize
the practice-approaches offered by
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
in Woodacre/Santa Rosa, CA.
We are non-denominational ,
definately non-religious and
welcome all journeyers
of all Ways or even none.
______________________
QUOTES ~ The Gift of Wise Words
“Whatever the Question ~
Love and Kindness is the answer!”
~ The Dalai Lama
To measure you by your smallest deed
is to judge the ocean by the frailty of it's foam.
To judge you by your failures is to cast blame
upon the seasons for their inconsistencies
~ Kahlil Gibran
What good you do is of little significance,
But it is very important that you do it.
WE Must BE the change we want to see in the world "
~ Mahatma Gandhi
______________________________
"If we have no peace, it is because
we have forgotten that
we belong to each other."
~ Mother Teresa
"Wise, clear understanding is key
to the dissolution of all ignorances --
Then be Kind whenever possible.
It is always possible."
~ Dalai Lama
"One common mistake is to think
that your reality is THE reality.
You must always be prepared to
leave your reality for a greater one."
~ Amaji Meera
"You yourself,
as much as anyone in the entire Universe,
deserves your OWN affection, care and love.
You can explore the whole universe looking
for someone who is more deserving of your
love and affection than you are yourself...
and you will not find that person anywhere.
To be maximum effective -
the Practice of Loving-Kindness
must absolutely begin with yourself!" ~ The Buddha
___________________________________
“Who was born first, 'You' or 'The World'?
As long as you give first place to ‘The World’
-- you are bound by it.
Once you realize, beyond all trace of doubt,
that the ‘world’ is in you --
-- and not 'you' in the world,
right then and there, you are out of it.
Of course, your body remains in the world
and 'of' the world,
but YOU are not >d-e-l-u-d-e-d< by it.”
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
________________________________________________
“If you don't understand that ‘whatever’ appears IS meditation --
what can you achieve by applying an ‘antidote’?
Perceptions and conceptions, false ideas and notions
are not abandoned by discarding them --
but are 'spontaneously freed' when recognized
and 'realized' as only an Illusion." ~ Niguma Dakini
________________________________________
They drew a circle that shut me out --
Calling me a heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win --
We drew a circle that took them in.
~ Edwin Markham "Outwitted"
A Sufi sage once said ~
"The best thing is not to hate anyone --
Only to Love.
That is the only way out of it.
As soon as you have Forgiven
those whom you intensely hate --
You have simply gotten rid of them!
Then you have no reason to 'hate' them --
You just forget."
~ Hazrat Inayat Khan
"Do not look back in Anger,
or forward in Fear,
but around in Awareness" ~ James Thurber
"At night make me fearlessly one with the darkness ~
In the morning make me optimistically one with the light"
~ Wendell Berry
__________________________________________________________
You may want to hi-lite, copy & send this quote below to people you know...
some of the wisest guidance you'll ever read, put to personal use or offer.
__________________________________________________
here it is ~
"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart.
Try to love the 'Questions' themselves - like locked rooms
and like books that are written in a foreign language.
Do not, just right now, seek for the Answers.
The 'Answers' which cannot now be given to you -
because you would not be able to actually ‘live’ them.
And the point is to ‘live’ everything - experiencing everything.
At present, you need to live the Questions themselves.
Perhaps you will then gradually, without even noticing it,
live along some day into the true Answer. Your answer."
~ Rilke's "Letters to a Young Poet" (1903-1908)
end
balance is unfinihed
___________________________
and Good Old Buddhist BOOK List update 10. 2016.docx
http://buddhistmeditationsantamonica.blogspot.com/
Maybe some pieces & parts of what follows, is also what may be going on with you...
ARE YOU HAVING A SPIRITUAL CRISIS: a ‘SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY’? An emergency of your spirit? Are you having an authentic ‘SPIRITUAL EMERGENCE’?
A true ‘EXISTENTIAL CRISIS of sorts? A crisis of your very 'Being-ness'? Or a Spiritual Break-through and Emergence? Which? Are your values & views gradually or radically changing? Wanting to genuinely 'upgrade' your consciousness? Going towards the authentically 'Spiritual' and not just some sort of delusive 'magical-thinking'? How to know? Are you stuck? Are you feeling a bit helpless, powerless - out of balance - frustrated - going thru difficult changes? Loss of purpose? Confused? Moody? Disturbing emotional swings?Dead-ended? What to do -- where to fit in -- how to make it all work out? Who with experience can you talk and relate to about it? We offer counseling and therapy for people who are beginning the really 'higher process' of change where it merges with the spiritual. You may need to talk to someone who has training in both worlds: psychology AND spirituality.
we also offer to the community ~
• Creatively-minded Corporate/Business Consultation: Human Resource Resolution
and 'Spirit In The Workplace' development. Very way out of the box stuff. We also consult
on the American 'spiritual mind-set', 'The Crisis In Faith', 'Loss of Classical Mythologies
to Technology', 'What's Wrong With Our Minds & Culture?' and current 'religious trends'
(a lot of it quite unconscious, un self-identified & dreadfully naive) within the
contemporary American/Western cultural praadigm as a whole.
• We Counsel all manifestations of alternative & emerging life-styles: mixed racial/religious
partnerings & marriages; gay & bi curious, str8 still exploring. It's the 21st Century:
It's a big wide open world out there now... We offer bridge-building between communities:
people of all colors, religions, diverse cultures & ethnic origins. A pluralistic society brings
so many awesome enrichments as well as struggles of balance & new found respect ...
Or maybe..
SO YOU’RE EVOLVING SPIRITUALLY and YOU’RE CURRENT ‘REGULAR’-STYLE THERAPIST JUST ISN’T on your track, doesn't seem to 'get' you - sorry, but he/she is just not! They may give you a nod of support to your 'spiritual pursuits' but can offer not much else in that direction. Here too, you may need to talk to someone who has training in both worlds - psychology and spirituality.
Do you have unresolved feelings, unusual/disturbing states of consciousness, or deep questionings around your present ongoing spiritual growth process now? What now? We offer experienced understanding, caring assistance, careful explanations and understandings, and crisis counseling for people to sort through and integrate a wide range of feelings that may have arisen: exploring both the dark and the light side - quite transformative in itself -- emerging with a new sense of clarity and well-being.
“It is still up to you to choose
to join with ‘truth’ or with ‘illusion’.
But remember that to choose one
is to let go of the other.
When the way comes to an end,
then Change -
having changed, you pass through." ~ The Tao
MENTORING ~ Mentorship is a Relationship --post--
Akasa Levi at BUDDHIST COUNSELING + MINDFULNESS MEDITATION Changes Our Whole Relationship to "Reality" Itself ! -
*Mentorship is a Relationship* *"* Mentoring" is a process that *always* involves communication and is strongly relationship-based..." This good, seminal article is writen like a personal reflection or opinion essay that states the *Wikipedia editor's personal feelings
Akasa Levi at BUDDHIST COUNSELING + MINDFULNESS MEDITATION Changes Our Whole Relationship to "Reality" Itself ! - 3 months ago
we also offer to the community ~
• Creatively-minded Corporate/Business Consultation: Human Resource Resolution
and 'Spirit In The Workplace' development. Very way out of the box stuff. We also consult
on the American 'spiritual mind-set', 'The Crisis In Faith', 'Loss of Classical Mythologies
to Technology', 'What's Wrong With Our Minds & Culture?' and current 'religious trends'
(a lot of it quite unconscious, un self-identified & dreadfully naive) within the
contemporary American/Western cultural praadigm as a whole.
• We Counsel all manifestations of alternative & emerging life-styles: mixed racial/religious
partnerings & marriages; gay & bi curious, str8 still exploring. It's the 21st Century:
It's a big wide open world out there now... We offer bridge-building between communities:
people of all colors, religions, diverse cultures & ethnic origins. A pluralistic society brings
so many awesome enrichments as well as struggles of balance & new found respect ...
END
end.
( 15 ) FILMS – for contemplation or just fun
• Buddhist or Dharma or Consciousness-themes
• Best Western Films / Best Asian & Foreign Films _______________________________________
( 16 ) The ARTS, SPRITUALITY & MEDITATION
ART-MAKING & Art-making meditators
• ART :: it's Ancient Relationship with Meditation
• The Benefits to art-maker's mindfulness & awareness
• NO 'BELIEFS' - just observing, watching, witnessing,
Reality without 'beliefs', without buying-in or compromise
• Silly ZEN Story: "The Purpose of Meditation Training"
for humanitarian-conscious global causes.
Art-maker and Therapy and Counseling and Meditation
Meditation and the Art-maker _____________________________________
a few words about
The Arts and it's Relationship with Meditation
The ARTS, SPRITUALITY & MEDITATION
An ancient highly productive partnership that's been going on in all world cultures for millennia – so we're not going to review humanity’s responsive and amazing story here.
There is Tao, Zen, Ikebana, Haiku, Bushido, Zen Gardens, Ritual Dance, Noh Theater, Calligraphy, Zenga, Nanga, Bonsai, Religious Icon Craft, Temple Chanting & Sacred Music, Negative Space-use in art, Healing & Shaman Ritual, Geisha Mindful Gestures, Samurai, Tantric Erotic Art and the renown Tea Ceremony etc upon etc. ART always was SPIRITUAL, a human’s higher-expression of The Sacred. – Actually in all cultures world-wide ! A Mindful Meditative Artful Sacredness.
Art-making, art-viewing or art-experiencing
are inherently 'contemplative' activities . . .
that naturally benefit from meditation ~
Meditation strengthens the art maker's mindfulness and awareness. Meditation enhances the creative and viewing processes in specific ways – it helps to synchronize mind and body, right and left hemispheres of the brain, and our intuitive and intellectual abilities. The mindfulness & awareness practices found in meditation develop our perception so that we may see and experience things as they truly are. This leads us to genuine spontaneity and pure, unselfconscious, full expression. A 'creative process' based in the practice of meditation dissolves creative blockages, reveals the source of creativity, leading to clear perception.
In the 'experiencing-process', meditation develops intuition, our pure felt-sense, sharpens our native intelligence and can lead us towards an experience of the aesthetically profound or sublime – where our felt & thought senses come together – to further awaken the 'creative' and the 'viewing' processes.
~ Steven Saitzyk - Professor, Humanities& Sciences,
Art Center College of Design – Los Angeles
and International Director of Shambhala Art
The Practice of MEDITATION:
The Benefits ? – enhances & strengthens
the art-maker's mindfulness & awareness.
“Meditation ...a doorway
to the significantly
to the significantly
deep unconscious.”
“Before meditation, before I used to ‘sit’ regularly
like I do now – I used to be only semi-conscious
and impulsively leap at the first images n’ things
that arose in my mind, and at what soon became
so banal - but I’d already started on it, or often
got way into it. But now I simply meditate and wait.
Sometimes I can wait quite awhile quite patiently.
I’ve simply learned to quietly wait by training myself.
That’s all, just that. I’m training myself in stillness.
And in the stillness the deeper regions of my mind
slowly unfold - and I only observe, not reacting,
not seizing on anything, not grasping. Just
witnessing and waiting. I see so much now.” ~ J.L.
____________________________________
Thru a willing, consistent meditation practice -
gradually & naturally you expand & deepen an authentic, attentive, open, clear, uncluttered,
wide, roomy, calm spacious field of awareness -
less & less disturbed by ongoing, shallow, chaotic,
obsessively running mental-images & commentary - a panoramic field - toned, strengthened& stabilized
with a naturalistic meditation practice-approach ~ art
uncompromised with 'religion' or prescribed methods -
so you can have it readily available to you personally -
effortlessly, open, spontaneous & without efforting ....
Ah, then there's lots n' lots of vivid, deep, rich room
for true creative manifestation to naturally arise
in that much more silent, more user-friendly field
of e x p a n d e d awareness that's now all yours.
Just learn to begin to sit still sans ego. Simplistic?
Of course it is. It's just that you're not simple yet !
Ahh, but soon... your subtle depths are calling...
~ Akasa Levi
BTW, Some really good ancient Buddhist Art ~
http://www.buddhanet.net/gallery.htm ______________________________
"If one's thoughts towards 'spirituality'
were of the same passionate intensity
as those of a couple falling in 'love' –
one would become a Buddha right now,as those of a couple falling in 'love' –
in this very body, in this very life."
~ from The Love Poems
of the Sixth Dalai Lama ( 1703 AD )
______________________________
“ART” is what You call 'That'.
What I call 'That' - is just That.
~ William Eggleston, photographer
Since all things are essentially naked,
at least from their side, of course....
There is nothing to 'attain' or 'realize.
The 'Everyday Practice' of a practical
'Everyday Enlightenment' is simply
to 'd e v e l o p' into all situations,
and all emotions, and to all people –
as they simply come to you . . .
experiencing everything totally
without reservations and blockages -
so that one never withdraws, or aloof,
or centralizes back onto oneself.
~ Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
_________________
The ARTS,
SPRITUALITY
& MEDITATION:
The Benefits –
SPRITUALITY
& MEDITATION:
The Benefits –
Meditation strengthens
the art-maker's inherent
mindfulness and awareness.
the art-maker's inherent
mindfulness and awareness.
No "Beliefs" – A Core Understanding of Buddhism"
No 'beliefs': just watching, witnessing, perceiving, just noticing, just investigating, just observing, observing, observing, observing' – with absolute 'bare attentiveness' – just seeing, hearing, feeling – without 'beliefs', without 'faith-in', without buying-in. Holy Indifferent. No demand. No identifying with it. See it clearly, maybe leave it entirely alone.
Not psychologizing about it, not rationalizing, reasoning, justifying, not storytelling.Not dismissing, not banishing, not fixing it, not meddling. Just observing, observing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Silly Solipsistic Zen Story about
the ‘Real Purpose’ of Meditation Training?
Taken from true facts, as the story so goes, Bhante Sudu Hom'dru, was an American Buddhist monk who grew up on a small chicken farm near Woodstock, NY. Now barefoot, painfully, mindfully walking the narrow ridges of hot sun-baked clay crossing a dry rice paddy field near Bodhgaya, North India, mid 1970’s – with his noble Samurai-blooded Japanese Zen monk-teacher Shibuya Sensei. Once a teenager questing through an Elvis 50’s, this delusively-romantic, magical-thinking American always wanted his very own Zen teacher-friend ever since finding alternatives in ‘Jazz’, finding Jack Kerouac’s 'Beat' open On The Road,
and especially late night radio-listening to early Jean Shepard dramatically invoke the mystical Fu Manchu or intone a good Haiku - circa 1958 - when ‘hip’ was shared among the very sparse few who knew. This funny, yet indignant Jewish ‘young soul’ evolved into this really ‘old soul’ robed sanyassi that partially ‘awakened’ himself way outside a parched desert village in India. It was high-noon in ‘search of secret India’ – so he gave up looking to Hesse’s Siddhartha for guidance or Gurdjieff’s elusive Meetings With Remakable Men to lead him forward - and thus became a monk himself – and he ironically found an ‘identity’ to finish-up all identity-seeking – that Long Last Role of the Buddhist – And it was still so bloody hot. Foolish barefoot yogi ! This novice, this overheated new monk had a Question: This monk always had a question. Like a persistent child. Yet, it is so sad so many of us loose that quality early on in life. ‘Answers’ offered don’t seem to ultimately do it for us, nor permanently resolve anything & we stop ‘asking’. Many of the monk's questions usually began with the same lead-in: "What is the 'purpose' of . . this or that or such n' such"? This monk was still involved with ‘reasons’ & ‘purposes’ to things or ideas. Lots of ‘content’, still little wisdom-‘context’. He hadn’t re-discovered his ‘wonder’ yet.
Except he did begin to see that it all is an unconsciously performed stage ‘magic show’ for him o 'observe' everyday ‘illusions’ – just our fumbling attempts at some self-conscious Human Hocus Pokus – manifesting here alongside Nature’s Grand Guileless Illusions. This monk knew he was fragile, still fascinated by a tempting-performance. He asked Questions to sizably reduce his options.
“Oh, I've seen that – another ‘Repeat’ on TV t’nite”. Wisdom thins out repeat shows. Less to cling to. "Sensei?" he asked him e.nun.ci.a.ting in slow, simple words because Sensei’s English at the time was not too good. "What is the purpose of Zen-training?" Sensei responded warp speed in his Asian-accented English – "To become aseempahton." Well, not getting the word quite discernable at all - the young monk asked once again, "Sensei? – What is the real purpose of Zen-training?" So Shibuya Sensei patiently repeated again & again, till the word finally punched itself through – the esoterically mysterious word WAS now finally, clearly comprehendible at last – "Ahh ~ Purpose of Zen training is to become a-seem-pah-ton – a-seem-pah-ton - and he wiggled
his wagging fingers wildly in the air for the briefest moment – then tapped his fingers on the young monk's smooth-shaven monk-head. "Seem-pah-ton" – "The Purpose of Zen training is to become a Simpleton". They both had a good chuckle. They then continued to walk on in silence. The monk thought about how having a simpleton’s empty-head could allow room for more Space and Peace to be in his simplifying mind – BE his mind ! So he could see better with it - make wiser, kinder choices with it - and now 'know' simple happiness. He then stubbed his toe on a clump of clay. "F#@k" –– But no Katsu shout of Satori today!
~ Bhante Sudu Hom'dru ( 1975 )
What is POETRY ? What is your current medium ?
• COUNSELING THERAPY for The ARTIST:doc
All our individual rambling stories begin with a 'Search' --
Spiritually speaking, that's a very classic way to start.
At one's Core, something got lost and one goes out
to try'n find it. Don't we all kinda' relate with that ?
The ART MAKERS and other
Aware Gifted Maverick People
• COUNSELING THERAPY for The ARTIST:
an effective Buddhist-based 'Alternative'
to psychotherapy for the Discomforted Mind,
Wounded Spirit, Despairing Relationship and
elusive Impasses to Liberated Limitless Creativity.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
buddhistcounselingtherapysantamonica.blogspot.com.
..... The ARTS, SPRITUALITY & MEDITATION
ART-MAKING and Art-making meditators
ART --It's Ancient Relationship with Meditation
ART --as True Mystery Opens to Mindfulness Technique
The Benefits to Art-maker's Insight informed Awareness
with NO 'BELIEFS' - just Observing, Watching, Witnessing
Ongoing Reality without 'Beliefs', or buying-in or compromise
"The Purpose of Meditation Training" --Humanitarian-conscious ART-makers who are Activists for global causes-- deeply involved n the midst of our very edgy, over-busy, fearful, survival-stressed Uncertain Times
IF YOU SCROLL N' ROLL AROUND and GRAZE the Pastures On This Webpage -- Follow Some Of It Along -- Besides Details -- There's A Lot of Brief Bits of Language-play and Great Reading In Here To Inspire and Uplift You. Drink Deep and Intelligently Nourish Your Spirit...
‘All-the-time-Awareness’ People
ART Makers / MUSIC Makers / WORD Crafters / DANCE Makers / MOVEMENT-Masters / MAKERS & SHAKERS / HEART-Breakers / more>>
Gifted Maverick People 1-on-1 sessions with Akasa Levi
at “The SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD MENTOR PROJECT” where BUDDHIST COUNSELING + MINDFULNESS MEDITATION Changes Our Whole Relationship to "Reality" Itself !
COUNSELING / THERAPY for "The Suffering Soul of The ARTIST" -- as they once said in La Boheme" the opera -- a truly effective Buddhist-based 'Alternative' that is 'complementary' to psychotherapy for the reviving and setting upright again-- that what was once felt as a Lost, Abandoned Muse, Discomforted Dry Mind, a Wounded Spirit, a Despairing Relationship and many elusive Impasses to Liberated Limitless Creativity. Impasses to Creativity -- All in the midst of our very edgy, over-... more »
“The SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD PROJECT” is a Buddhist-based Psycho/Spiritual oriented Resource, Counseling and Alternative Therapy. The world renown and respected ancient tradition of Buddhist Mindfulness as an applicable psychology, as a path of cultivating a 'transcendent' - a 'higher sanity' - a very clear-seeing ability for yourself. By developing this wisdom understanding, you are now available to generate a much more all-inclusive compassion - which leads to an authentic peace in ourselves, which we can then extend out to our family, friends and the world. Learning and using a 2500 year-old, tested self-development approaches and techniques, towards a clear, wholesome, peaceful, joyful mind.
Traditional contemporary Buddhism is absolutely NOT a ‘religious path’ but more of an empirical, practical, pragmatic, highly intelligent ‘Humanism’.
There are NO gods and NO worship and NO religious superstitions involved in anything we offer, in any way whatsoever. We're about Relevancy and Metaphor - unless you DO want to hear more about it -- Historically it’s very kewl too ! Working Archetype-forms that are really just good subliminal stories -The Buddha ( 528 BC ) himself was an atheist to the bone. There are some challenging bewilderments in Buddhism for the linear literal mind. Zen is founded on it -- Just discovering and uncovering the essence of a sane, wise, peaceful, pure spirit that is YOU.
The ART MAKERs Gifted Maverick People…
Therapy for Artists --a Buddhist-based 'Alternative'
___________________________________________
" HOW TO BECOME THE CLARITY OF YOUR OWN CHOOSING."
Maybe It’s Time You Became A Disciple of *Your Own*Awareness
"Buddhism's all about experiential, natural, uncompromised truth -
-- Buddhism is so much closer to 'science' than it is to 'theology'
To be 'Buddhist' is to be both delightfully perplexed, awakened
and sweetened by the strangely sane, refreshingly
'rational' path Buddha created."
Akasa Levi at BUDDHIST COUNSELING +
MINDFULNESS MEDITATION
Changes Our Whole Relationship to "Reality" Itself !
______________________________________
Certainly you're a very UNCOMMON PERSON ....
"The 'Uncommon Person' Already Feels Different --
in a Very Non-Assimilate-able Way.
We all really do, but for the truly 'uncommon one'
it's sort of a double-whammy to carry!"
UNHAPPY 'UNCOMMON' PEOPLE are sensitive, creative,
individualistic, heart & higher-consciousness oriented people -
artistic, intellectual, mystical, musical, poetic or spiritual.
So you probably need a 'Non-traditional Therapist'
who Understands “non-mainstream”, non-Matrix lifestyles --
and who is deeply empathic and genuinely understands odd,
'uncommon' and ‘unusual’ or ‘non-ordinary’ people -
who are quite unique or gifted, but unhappy.
You in particular,
may want to talk to someone
who has training in both worlds:
psychology AND spirituality.
At “SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD” we offer a uniquely
combined counseling: an innovative, wholistic,
Asian-influenced, , 'spiritual variation' of therapy
based in grounded, practical Buddhist psychology.
Created for intelligent people - sensitive people -
creative people - odd, uncommon people…
" THE GREATEST RISK IS NOT TAKING ONE! "
______________________________________
The SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD PROJECT
Santa Monica • CA 90405 • USA • 1-310-450-2268
This form of Counseling-Therapy can be called many things
• Spiritual-based Counseling • Psycho/Spiritual Coaching
• Spiritual-directed Therapy • Spiritual-oriented Guidance •
• It's been done effectively for 1000's of years ...
( This is not a traditional licensed clinical psychotherapy --
nor is it 'religious' -- it is 'Spiritual', which takes in everything
human culture and thought has ever created )
__________________________________
SOME IMPORTANT Preliminary DETAILS
-- or just skip 'em for now, and Keep Reading ...
• We Counsel both Women and Men
in INDIVIDUAL PERSONAL THERAPY sessions with
a Buddhist-informed theoretical base, as well as
Western contemporary approaches to the mind
and emotions.
• RELATIONSHIP Counseling for Partnerings
of all arrangements and configurations: Be Honst--
Tell the Truth about your 'experience' now --
Couples, Marriages and Family Groups.
Inter-active, face to face, very personal,
‘tough-love’ and often very directive -
when appropriate - in clear,
truthful, effective sessions..
________________
PLEASE NOTE ~
• ALL counseling sessions are 'live' in-office visits. We must limit counseling sessions to
our Southern California LOCAL AREA, mostly greater LOS ANGELES residence-based clients only.
• 'Phone Counseling-sessions' later on, when necessary, will be for 'established clients' with us.
• We offer a First-Time FREE phone consultation to local greater Los Angeles area callers.
We'd certainly need to talk with you on the phone first. It's all about developing a sound 'ground'
of genuine communication -- not for the sake of all sorts of 'rules' and stuff...
Please ASK US PLENTY of QUESTIONS and really feel out if "Spiritual Adulthood" sessions might be for you --
( We can possibly refer you to qualified Buddhist counselors in your own regional area if you email us.)
______________________________________________________________________
• ONGOING REGULAR SESSIONS are by a mutually arranged fee & by appointment only.
• We offer AFFORDABLE NEGOTIABLE Sliding-scale Lower-fee Sessions
for those who really need it. We do not take insurance plans, HMOs etc.
• We offer a much more generous EXTENDED SESSION-TIME than is usual...
ALL sessions are given much more than the standard therapy-hour's time (:55 min ).
We offer you usually about one hour+20 min (:80 min) to allow time to go really
deep as you need to... without feeling cut off or hurried.
• A FIRST-TIME PHONE INQUIRY is always Best & much more immediate for us to respond to --
to your issues & feelings ... ambivalent emails back & forth really does not work well at all.
Please Telephone Us -- we'd need to talk 'live' first, if you sincerely wish to inquire further.
• LOCAL PHONE TIMES: NOON to 6 PM any day is the best time to reach us - 310-450-2268.
AND we just may be in session when you call. Leave a message + local phone number.
If Voice Mail answers, please leave a very complete message with your best phone number(s)
& how long you’ll actually be there. How you can best be reached. Also leave any other
phone numbers, CELL phone number & times we can reach you later on --
and please speak slowly & clearly. It is important that you try your best to
make yourself ‘accessible’, so we can reach you & you can 'reach' yourself !
Please, Make Yourself Easy To Reach.
______________________________________________________________________
" As human beings, our greatness lies
not so much in being able to remake the world...
As in being able to remake ourselves.
Become the changes you want to see in the world" ~ Gandhi
" Begin as creation, become a Creator. Never wait at a barrier " ~ Rumi
"The limits of the possible can only be defined
by going beyond them into the impossible." ~ Arthur C. Clarke
Good, but impossible resolutions, are simply checks
that men draw on a bank where they have no account.
Start with the eminently 'possible'. ~ Oscar Wilde
" While one person hesitates
because they feel insecure and inferior,
the other is busy making mistakes aplenty
and becoming quite superior." ~ The Tao
___________________________________
CONTACT PERSON: AKASA LEVI, DhMA ~
______________________________________
• Akasa Levi, DhMA (D.Min) resident teacher for spiritual direction ~ 310-450-2268
We practice as Buddhist ministers, not as licensed MFT or PhD clinical psychologists.
We take in a much broader scope than just the psychological. We address the cultivation
of a very contemporary Spirit in the difficult modern society we live in.
Educating the Spirit gives you a wider base to work with.
“DESTINY is every step we’re taking
and going thru right now to get there”
~ Grandfather Bearheart, Creek elder
Appologies About our WEBSITE PAGE
You're invited to visit here, our fledgling web-page in-progress:
http://dharmahere310.blogspot.com
http://buddhistcounselingtherapysantamonica.blogspot.com
So you'll get some more flavor to what our foundational 'meditation philosophy' is all about. It's a more 'radical' form of Buddhism - geared to the arts & free thought-minded. Please enter the Whole URL in as it is a site still in progress. Thanks
By The Way ~ I and some friends on the Way -- returnrd from the Road in the early 80's and started up sitting groups early onand launched scrappy clunky websites-- and fronly nwe never got beyound that point - we still sit meditation in each others houses -- House Sittin Meditation we called it. are an easy-going bunch of Santa Monica Beach Buddhas - and a real bona-fide click n' point fancy 'website' is almost too much extra work for us to get into -- so please pardon us, you gotta scroll down our message, just like this posting page.
______________________________________________________________________
OVERVIEW ...
"There is no such thing as a 'problem'
without a 'gift' for you in its hands.
Sometimes you have problems
because you need their gifts.
It is through gifts that you grow." ~ Richard Bach
THE PROBLEM
• BRING YOU LIFE BACK
FROM THE 'EXILE' OF YOUR SPIRIT
and INTO A SACRED BALANCE AGAIN!
>>> WHATEVER IT IS, YOU'RE "A-NOT-SO-HAPPY-PERSON" <<<
Many, many folks aren’t. We're in very agitated, anxious, turbulent, uncertain times right now. Career and Life-Purpose Despair, Emotional Stuff, Mid-Life Changes or Painful Relationship Dilemmas personally don't make it easier. So please, go 'see' somebody and really start working it out. 'You' - really being heard from way deep inside and coached forward and through by a counseling therapist who can deeply understand you – human to human.
So get out of your own 'protective' self-imposed isolation: “I can do it by myself” mantra - reinforced by ego-pride-shame-hurt-loss-fear-cycles and just put yourself into counseling sessions for awhile. It'll be good for you - you'll get relief and even some joy and laughter. This is where you can work on your stuff and your Soul on a 'frequent enough' basis to make a really noticeable difference. At least phone us. There is no obligation to have a free phone-consultation with us to see if this could feel good and workable for you...
_______________________________________________________
ARE YOU FEELING ‘DISSED’? ~ DISAPPOINTED DISCOURAGED DISTRESSED Disagreeable Discomforted Disconnected Disconcerted Discontent Disdainful Disgruntled Disgusted Disharmonious and Disheartened -- Disillusioned Disintegrated Distressed Dismayed Dismal Disorganized Disoriented Disregarded Dissatisfied Distant Distraught Distrustful and very Disturbed about it all -- definitely pissed off
This whole ‘Dis’ this or ‘Dis’ that thing - about your life? You CAN change it! We can help and assist you. It's a very old formula for personal challenge - but YOU DO have to show up for yourself to make it happen. Get some Quality Counseling Therapy - somewhere, anywhere - it may be a place for you to start.
Be very welcome to inquire about us.
"Eighty percent of success is just showing up" ~ Woody Allen
________________________________________________
UNCOMMON PEOPLE speak ....
" Every community needs
a group of angelic troublemakers "
~ Bayard Rustin,
black activist social reformer
"Our constant inquiry is our passion
and our passion is our task.
The rest is the madness of art."
~ Henry James, "The Middle Years"
"Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything
that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision
against the play-it-safers, he creatures of the commonplace,
the slaves of the ordinary." ~ Sir Cecil Beaton
"Be not afraid of absurdity -
do not shrink from the fantastic!
Within a dilemma - choose
the most unheard-of,
he most audacious solution!
De l'audace! De l'audace!
Et encore de l'audace!
Be audacious!" ~ Karen Blixen
_________________________________________________
More On The UNCOMMON... and again
UNHAPPY 'UNCOMMON' PEOPLE are sensitive, creative,
individualistic, higher-consciousness oriented people -
artistic, intellectual, mystical, musical, poetic or spiritual.
So you probably need a 'Non-traditional Therapist'
who Understands “non-mainstream”, non-Matrix lifestyles --
and who is deeply empathic and genuinely understands
'uncommon' and ‘unusual’ or ‘non-ordinary’ people -
who are quite unique or gifted, but unhappy.
________________________________
• You may be a very 'individual' person who feels very naturally inward, spiritual oriented - and yet you're struggling to get ‘worldly’ problems/emotional issues handled realistically and with integrity as well -- yet without you having to commit to any spiritual path whatsoever!
We offer NO religious preaching or dogma - nothing to ‘believe’ in. Just the emergence of your own individual true ‘knowing’ and personal excellence! We want to assist you in discovering a 'natural unfolding' of unshakable balance, boundless wisdom and joy ! And your innate good humor! Liberating a new sense of caring and connectedness with yourself, other people and the universe. An expanded inner acceptance and outer effectiveness. ‘True’ happiness totally independent of the unavoidable effects of ‘everyday’ circumstances
and conditions! Really 'true freedom' as they've spoken about in Asian teachings for millenia !!
_____________________________________
You may want to talk to someone
who has training in both worlds:
psychology AND spirituality.
At “SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD” we offer
a uniquely combined counseling: an innovative,
wholistic, Asian, 'spiritual variation' of therapy
based in pragmatic, practical Buddhist psychology.
Created for intelligent people - sensitive people -
creative people - odd, uncommon people…
_____________________________
WHAT FOLLOWS IS GOING TO TAKE SOME MORE TIME & SOME MORE PATIENCE ON YOUR PART
TO READ & SORT THRU -- YOU DO NOT HAVE TO READ IT ALL AT ONCE, TAKE IT IN SMALL BITES, SKIP AROUND IN IT -- YOU'LL CERTAINLY KNOW A LOT MORE ABOUT WHAT YOU NEED WHEN YOU'RE DONE READING THIS ...
______________________________________
A Basic Problem:
Emotions get to run thinking.
Thoughts get so embedded in feelings ~
Confusion, hopeless, numb... angry & sad
MAYBE YOU'VE BECOME
SO OVERWHELMINGLY ‘IDENTIFIED’
OVER-INVOLVED IN YOUR OWN
DIFFICULT 'LIFE-STORY'
That You Just Can’t See
The Forest Because of All The Trees!
Your 'Story' of being such a driven 'winner' or a victimized 'loser' - or just a plain nobody ’out there’ - you're just so overwhelmed - or feeling so isolated -that you just plain 'hurt'. Maybe you’ve lost the path, or forgotten the way, or just feel so ineffective in your 'deeper' inner-search. Or you’ve just never yet really sought out Who ‘You’ really, really are - ‘in here’. Inside.
RE-DISCOVERING and REFINING "Yourself" - totally defined in/on your OWN TERMS ! (not society’s or religion's terms). YOUR Own Terms is what 'therapy of the spirit' is all about ! Therapy of the 'True' Spirit is really where ALL mind/spirit/soul-healing MUST start. True therapy has to start and end with the Heart ! Otherwise it ain't True. It’s been that way in every culture all through time! It's just only that until very recently,
the 'choices' of that healing have always been so restricted and few... either doctors or the church. No longer. Every approach world-wide is now available to you! It's from that Very Big Approach that you can truly find yourself and then truly give back to others in a valuable, clear, easy-going and natural way ... true 'goodness'.
Faith in ourselves simply as Humans restored --and it can be 'spiritual'. AND, Totally NON-RELIGIOUS --Consider that!
__________________________________
“The SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD PROJECT”
is a Buddhist-based Psycho/Spiritual oriented Counseling and Alternative Therapy.
The world renown and respected ancient tradition of Buddhist psychology is a path of cultivating a 'transcendent' - a 'higher sanity' - a very clear-seeing ability for yourself. By developing this wisdom-understanding, you are now available to generate a much more all-inclusive compassion - which leads to an authentic peace in ourselves, which we can then extend out to our family, friends and the world. Learning & using 2500 year-old tested self-development approaches and techniques towards a clear, wholesome, peaceful, joyful mind. Traditional Buddhism is absolutely NOT a‘religious path’ but more of a practical, pragmatic, highly intelligent ‘Humanism’ - there are NO gods and NO worship or NO religious superstitions involved in anything we offer in any way whatsoever. Just discovering and uncovering the essence of a sane, wise, peaceful, pure spirit that is YOU.
_____________________________
“And then the day came
when the risk to remain
tight in a bud was more painful
than the risk it took to blossom” ~ Anais Nin
_________________________________
" FORGIVENESS Is Giving Up
All Hope For A Better Past! " ~ Aba Gayle
____________________________________
“ BREAKDOWN often PRECEEDS BREAKTHROUGH.. “
______________________________________________
A JOYFUL DISCLAIMER and A Statement of Philosophy ...
Who We Are In Our Hearts and In Our Heads
as a 'Spiritually-Based' Counseling Service ~
Akasa's Theory of Everything --
Now Go Home and Leave me alone --
Just a Bad day with Truth, and without Charm...
We are truly 'non-denominational' and 'non-religious' and offfer an inclusive welcome eo all Journeyers of all Ways, or especially even those of no way. 'Spiritual' doesn't mean 'Religion'. Actually, you can't even become a 'Buddhist', as that too is just another appelation --a 'Label'. We've turned Words into Things. Something to lean on.Safe.
Theory of Everything -- The ONE Web of existence, the 'Conscious-Life' part of the web that has the conditions to support LIFE. That's THAT. That's ALL. It's Alive. Lif e-consciousness gone 'Live' has many 'Names' in many different world cultures. The ONE Web 'itself', really has NO name at all -- YHVH -- All cultures on the planet call it ‘The One’ ( 1. ) So we just simply call it "EVERYTHING". All of 'Creation' itself. ‘Creator’ and ‘Creation’ is all the same thing, the same One. We simply leave it at that. Adoni Eluhanu Adoni Eckhud -- One is One and there is nothing outside of it. It's All ONE. You gotta’ love it all. NOW --
We try to love it All. Most of the time, piece by piece in peace. If Done, press DONE.If next press Next or Submit. This can go on forever. It was planned that way. That's how we got here.
" There is no such thing as a strictly 'secular' therapy - or that a therapy is 'non-spiritual' .. That’s where Medical Mental Sciences are naïve. EVERY 'therapy' is spiritual if it deals with matters of the heart and emotions and feelings. Buddhist approaches in particular, are 'spiritual' BUT non-religious. The historical Buddha was a Humanist & a Pragmatist. There's a freedom of intelligence & openness to that - a big difference. "
We particularly use the 'Buddhist brand-name' because those Asian cultures have got some of the most skillfully mature, very grounded, least misleading, most inclusive and the very best of the mind-healing techniques available so far - so far as we've come across. So we use 'em. And we're still strongly very eclectic: we use many diverse approaches - so we'll use what YOU need, not what 'we' like best or 'believe in'. We're on your side! We practice as Buddhist ministers not as licensed MFT , LCSW, PhD or clinical psychologists.
_____________________________________________________________
• BIOGRAPHY: AKASA LEVI, DhMA (D.Min) - our counseling therapist/facilitator -
________________________________________________________________
Now 64 - Akasa Levi was an ordained American Theravada Buddhist forest monk in the 1970's
during a decade of living in Asia. He was a student of the renown Goenkaji in Bodhgaya-India,
where the famous Bodhi Tree the Buddha sat under is. He then became a student of Tibetan
Lama Thubten Yeshe & Zopa Rinpoche of Nepal, founders of Wisdom Publications in Boston
(www.wisdompubs.org) and Advaita master Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj in Bombay.
Akasa was in seminary & ordained by Sangha Nayake Ananda Maitreya, lineage-head of the
Amarapura Burmese Sect in Sri Lanka. He studied Western analytic therapy at UCLA after
returning to Western culture. Akasa practices therapy in Santa Monica California, USA.
He teaches a non-religious style of Buddhist group meditation with The Laughing Buddha Sangha --
and leads men’s groups at The L.A. Medicine Men’s Lodge which he founded. Otherwise this
old ‘tribal elder’ can be found in his garden or out dancing. Gardens & Dancing are his two
favorite metaphors.
Full biography & possibly a photo at http://www.zentrance.com (enter it all in)
• For Other Information - Please visit our shared meditation web site at
The LA Dharma Community under The Laughing Buddha Sangha
http://www.LADharma.org under Links/Teacher Links
We'll gladly give you a FREELY offered Local Phone Consultation – no obligation!
-- or to set up an actual appointment.
• 310-450-2268 ~ PLEASE USE THE PHONE, as there is NOT much else we can tell you by email.
The phone is more personal - and some quality 'personal attention' is probably what you need
for yourself right now -- more 'closeness' rather than distance...
We know that when you're feeling vulnerable, skittish or just plain bad & sad --
sometimes 'reaching out' is hard -- please, do take up the challenge!
"Take the first step in faith.
You don't have to see the whole staircase
-- just take the first step."
~ Martin Luther King
"If you do not see God in the next person
you meet, you need look no further."
~ Gandhi
__________________________
“La vraie générosité envers l'avenir
consiste à tout donner au présent.”
“True generosity towards the future
is to give everything to the present.”
~ Albert Camus
" THE GREATEST RISK IS NOT TAKING ONE! "
___________________________________
“The SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD PROJECT
is a Member of S.E.N.
(Spiritual Emergency Network
at Esalen Institute in Big Sur).
We are an outreach-project of
“The Laughing Buddha Sangha”
in Santa Monica, California.
We are affiliated with
The L.A. Dharma Community
( visit our collective website
www.LADharma.org ) and utilize
the practice-approaches offered by
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
in Woodacre/Santa Rosa, CA.
We are non-denominational ,
definately non-religious and
welcome all journeyers
of all Ways or even none.
______________________
QUOTES ~ The Gift of Wise Words
“Whatever the Question ~
Love and Kindness is the answer!”
~ The Dalai Lama
To measure you by your smallest deed
is to judge the ocean by the frailty of it's foam.
To judge you by your failures is to cast blame
upon the seasons for their inconsistencies
~ Kahlil Gibran
What good you do is of little significance,
But it is very important that you do it.
WE Must BE the change we want to see in the world "
~ Mahatma Gandhi
______________________________
"If we have no peace, it is because
we have forgotten that
we belong to each other."
~ Mother Teresa
"Wise, clear understanding is key
to the dissolution of all ignorances --
Then be Kind whenever possible.
It is always possible."
~ Dalai Lama
"One common mistake is to think
that your reality is THE reality.
You must always be prepared to
leave your reality for a greater one."
~ Amaji Meera
"You yourself,
as much as anyone in the entire Universe,
deserves your OWN affection, care and love.
You can explore the whole universe looking
for someone who is more deserving of your
love and affection than you are yourself...
and you will not find that person anywhere.
To be maximum effective -
the Practice of Loving-Kindness
must absolutely begin with yourself!" ~ The Buddha
___________________________________
“Who was born first, 'You' or 'The World'?
As long as you give first place to ‘The World’
-- you are bound by it.
Once you realize, beyond all trace of doubt,
that the ‘world’ is in you --
-- and not 'you' in the world,
right then and there, you are out of it.
Of course, your body remains in the world
and 'of' the world,
but YOU are not >d-e-l-u-d-e-d< by it.”
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
________________________________________________
“If you don't understand that ‘whatever’ appears IS meditation --
what can you achieve by applying an ‘antidote’?
Perceptions and conceptions, false ideas and notions
are not abandoned by discarding them --
but are 'spontaneously freed' when recognized
and 'realized' as only an Illusion." ~ Niguma Dakini
________________________________________
They drew a circle that shut me out --
Calling me a heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win --
We drew a circle that took them in.
~ Edwin Markham "Outwitted"
A Sufi sage once said ~
"The best thing is not to hate anyone --
Only to Love.
That is the only way out of it.
As soon as you have Forgiven
those whom you intensely hate --
You have simply gotten rid of them!
Then you have no reason to 'hate' them --
You just forget."
~ Hazrat Inayat Khan
"Do not look back in Anger,
or forward in Fear,
but around in Awareness" ~ James Thurber
"At night make me fearlessly one with the darkness ~
In the morning make me optimistically one with the light"
~ Wendell Berry
__________________________________________________________
You may want to hi-lite, copy & send this quote below to people you know...
some of the wisest guidance you'll ever read, put to personal use or offer.
__________________________________________________
here it is ~
"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart.
Try to love the 'Questions' themselves - like locked rooms
and like books that are written in a foreign language.
Do not, just right now, seek for the Answers.
The 'Answers' which cannot now be given to you -
because you would not be able to actually ‘live’ them.
And the point is to ‘live’ everything - experiencing everything.
At present, you need to live the Questions themselves.
Perhaps you will then gradually, without even noticing it,
live along some day into the true Answer. Your answer."
~ Rilke's "Letters to a Young Poet" (1903-1908)
end
balance is unfinihed
___________________________
and Good Old Buddhist BOOK List update 10. 2016.docx
http://buddhistmeditationsantamonica.blogspot.com/
Maybe some pieces & parts of what follows, is also what may be going on with you...
ARE YOU HAVING A SPIRITUAL CRISIS: a ‘SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY’? An emergency of your spirit? Are you having an authentic ‘SPIRITUAL EMERGENCE’?
A true ‘EXISTENTIAL CRISIS of sorts? A crisis of your very 'Being-ness'? Or a Spiritual Break-through and Emergence? Which? Are your values & views gradually or radically changing? Wanting to genuinely 'upgrade' your consciousness? Going towards the authentically 'Spiritual' and not just some sort of delusive 'magical-thinking'? How to know? Are you stuck? Are you feeling a bit helpless, powerless - out of balance - frustrated - going thru difficult changes? Loss of purpose? Confused? Moody? Disturbing emotional swings?Dead-ended? What to do -- where to fit in -- how to make it all work out? Who with experience can you talk and relate to about it? We offer counseling and therapy for people who are beginning the really 'higher process' of change where it merges with the spiritual. You may need to talk to someone who has training in both worlds: psychology AND spirituality.
we also offer to the community ~
• Creatively-minded Corporate/Business Consultation: Human Resource Resolution
and 'Spirit In The Workplace' development. Very way out of the box stuff. We also consult
on the American 'spiritual mind-set', 'The Crisis In Faith', 'Loss of Classical Mythologies
to Technology', 'What's Wrong With Our Minds & Culture?' and current 'religious trends'
(a lot of it quite unconscious, un self-identified & dreadfully naive) within the
contemporary American/Western cultural praadigm as a whole.
• We Counsel all manifestations of alternative & emerging life-styles: mixed racial/religious
partnerings & marriages; gay & bi curious, str8 still exploring. It's the 21st Century:
It's a big wide open world out there now... We offer bridge-building between communities:
people of all colors, religions, diverse cultures & ethnic origins. A pluralistic society brings
so many awesome enrichments as well as struggles of balance & new found respect ...
Or maybe..
SO YOU’RE EVOLVING SPIRITUALLY and YOU’RE CURRENT ‘REGULAR’-STYLE THERAPIST JUST ISN’T on your track, doesn't seem to 'get' you - sorry, but he/she is just not! They may give you a nod of support to your 'spiritual pursuits' but can offer not much else in that direction. Here too, you may need to talk to someone who has training in both worlds - psychology and spirituality.
Do you have unresolved feelings, unusual/disturbing states of consciousness, or deep questionings around your present ongoing spiritual growth process now? What now? We offer experienced understanding, caring assistance, careful explanations and understandings, and crisis counseling for people to sort through and integrate a wide range of feelings that may have arisen: exploring both the dark and the light side - quite transformative in itself -- emerging with a new sense of clarity and well-being.
“It is still up to you to choose
to join with ‘truth’ or with ‘illusion’.
But remember that to choose one
is to let go of the other.
When the way comes to an end,
then Change -
having changed, you pass through." ~ The Tao
MENTORING ~ Mentorship is a Relationship --post--
Akasa Levi at BUDDHIST COUNSELING + MINDFULNESS MEDITATION Changes Our Whole Relationship to "Reality" Itself ! -
*Mentorship is a Relationship* *"* Mentoring" is a process that *always* involves communication and is strongly relationship-based..." This good, seminal article is writen like a personal reflection or opinion essay that states the *Wikipedia editor's personal feelings
Akasa Levi at BUDDHIST COUNSELING + MINDFULNESS MEDITATION Changes Our Whole Relationship to "Reality" Itself ! - 3 months ago
we also offer to the community ~
• Creatively-minded Corporate/Business Consultation: Human Resource Resolution
and 'Spirit In The Workplace' development. Very way out of the box stuff. We also consult
on the American 'spiritual mind-set', 'The Crisis In Faith', 'Loss of Classical Mythologies
to Technology', 'What's Wrong With Our Minds & Culture?' and current 'religious trends'
(a lot of it quite unconscious, un self-identified & dreadfully naive) within the
contemporary American/Western cultural praadigm as a whole.
• We Counsel all manifestations of alternative & emerging life-styles: mixed racial/religious
partnerings & marriages; gay & bi curious, str8 still exploring. It's the 21st Century:
It's a big wide open world out there now... We offer bridge-building between communities:
people of all colors, religions, diverse cultures & ethnic origins. A pluralistic society brings
so many awesome enrichments as well as struggles of balance & new found respect ...
END
What is POETRY ? What is your current medium ?
"Poetry has an immediate effect on the mind. The simple act of reading poetry silently or out loud --alters thought patterns and the rhythm of breath. Poetry induces trance. Its words are chant. Its rhythms are drumbeats. Its images become the icons of the inner eye -- the transformational power of poetry. The ways poetry naturally expresses the sacred experience, the non-dogmatic nature of poetry. Poetry is more than a description of the sacred experience -- it carries the Experience itself." ~ Ivan Granger
-----------------------------------------------------------------• COUNSELING THERAPY for The ARTIST:doc
All our individual rambling stories begin with a 'Search' --
Spiritually speaking, that's a very classic way to start.
At one's Core, something got lost and one goes out
to try'n find it. Don't we all kinda' relate with that ?
The ART MAKERS and other
Aware Gifted Maverick People
• COUNSELING THERAPY for The ARTIST:
an effective Buddhist-based 'Alternative'
to psychotherapy for the Discomforted Mind,
Wounded Spirit, Despairing Relationship and
elusive Impasses to Liberated Limitless Creativity.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
buddhistcounselingtherapysantamonica.blogspot.com.
..... The ARTS, SPRITUALITY & MEDITATION
ART-MAKING and Art-making meditators
ART --It's Ancient Relationship with Meditation
ART --as True Mystery Opens to Mindfulness Technique
The Benefits to Art-maker's Insight informed Awareness
with NO 'BELIEFS' - just Observing, Watching, Witnessing
Ongoing Reality without 'Beliefs', or buying-in or compromise
"The Purpose of Meditation Training" --Humanitarian-conscious ART-makers who are Activists for global causes-- deeply involved n the midst of our very edgy, over-busy, fearful, survival-stressed Uncertain Times
IF YOU SCROLL N' ROLL AROUND and GRAZE the Pastures On This Webpage -- Follow Some Of It Along -- Besides Details -- There's A Lot of Brief Bits of Language-play and Great Reading In Here To Inspire and Uplift You. Drink Deep and Intelligently Nourish Your Spirit...
‘All-the-time-Awareness’ People
ART Makers / MUSIC Makers / WORD Crafters / DANCE Makers / MOVEMENT-Masters / MAKERS & SHAKERS / HEART-Breakers / more>>
Gifted Maverick People 1-on-1 sessions with Akasa Levi
at “The SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD MENTOR PROJECT” where BUDDHIST COUNSELING + MINDFULNESS MEDITATION Changes Our Whole Relationship to "Reality" Itself !
COUNSELING / THERAPY for "The Suffering Soul of The ARTIST" -- as they once said in La Boheme" the opera -- a truly effective Buddhist-based 'Alternative' that is 'complementary' to psychotherapy for the reviving and setting upright again-- that what was once felt as a Lost, Abandoned Muse, Discomforted Dry Mind, a Wounded Spirit, a Despairing Relationship and many elusive Impasses to Liberated Limitless Creativity. Impasses to Creativity -- All in the midst of our very edgy, over-... more »
“The SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD PROJECT” is a Buddhist-based Psycho/Spiritual oriented Resource, Counseling and Alternative Therapy. The world renown and respected ancient tradition of Buddhist Mindfulness as an applicable psychology, as a path of cultivating a 'transcendent' - a 'higher sanity' - a very clear-seeing ability for yourself. By developing this wisdom understanding, you are now available to generate a much more all-inclusive compassion - which leads to an authentic peace in ourselves, which we can then extend out to our family, friends and the world. Learning and using a 2500 year-old, tested self-development approaches and techniques, towards a clear, wholesome, peaceful, joyful mind.
Traditional contemporary Buddhism is absolutely NOT a ‘religious path’ but more of an empirical, practical, pragmatic, highly intelligent ‘Humanism’.
There are NO gods and NO worship and NO religious superstitions involved in anything we offer, in any way whatsoever. We're about Relevancy and Metaphor - unless you DO want to hear more about it -- Historically it’s very kewl too ! Working Archetype-forms that are really just good subliminal stories -The Buddha ( 528 BC ) himself was an atheist to the bone. There are some challenging bewilderments in Buddhism for the linear literal mind. Zen is founded on it -- Just discovering and uncovering the essence of a sane, wise, peaceful, pure spirit that is YOU.
The ART MAKERs Gifted Maverick People…
Therapy for Artists --a Buddhist-based 'Alternative'
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" HOW TO BECOME THE CLARITY OF YOUR OWN CHOOSING."
Maybe It’s Time You Became A Disciple of *Your Own*Awareness
"Buddhism's all about experiential, natural, uncompromised truth -
-- Buddhism is so much closer to 'science' than it is to 'theology'
To be 'Buddhist' is to be both delightfully perplexed, awakened
and sweetened by the strangely sane, refreshingly
'rational' path Buddha created."
Akasa Levi at BUDDHIST COUNSELING +
MINDFULNESS MEDITATION
Changes Our Whole Relationship to "Reality" Itself !
______________________________________
Certainly you're a very UNCOMMON PERSON ....
"The 'Uncommon Person' Already Feels Different --
in a Very Non-Assimilate-able Way.
We all really do, but for the truly 'uncommon one'
it's sort of a double-whammy to carry!"
UNHAPPY 'UNCOMMON' PEOPLE are sensitive, creative,
individualistic, heart & higher-consciousness oriented people -
artistic, intellectual, mystical, musical, poetic or spiritual.
So you probably need a 'Non-traditional Therapist'
who Understands “non-mainstream”, non-Matrix lifestyles --
and who is deeply empathic and genuinely understands odd,
'uncommon' and ‘unusual’ or ‘non-ordinary’ people -
who are quite unique or gifted, but unhappy.
You in particular,
may want to talk to someone
who has training in both worlds:
psychology AND spirituality.
At “SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD” we offer a uniquely
combined counseling: an innovative, wholistic,
Asian-influenced, , 'spiritual variation' of therapy
based in grounded, practical Buddhist psychology.
Created for intelligent people - sensitive people -
creative people - odd, uncommon people…
" THE GREATEST RISK IS NOT TAKING ONE! "
______________________________________
The SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD PROJECT
Santa Monica • CA 90405 • USA • 1-310-450-2268
This form of Counseling-Therapy can be called many things
• Spiritual-based Counseling • Psycho/Spiritual Coaching
• Spiritual-directed Therapy • Spiritual-oriented Guidance •
• It's been done effectively for 1000's of years ...
( This is not a traditional licensed clinical psychotherapy --
nor is it 'religious' -- it is 'Spiritual', which takes in everything
human culture and thought has ever created )
__________________________________
SOME IMPORTANT Preliminary DETAILS
-- or just skip 'em for now, and Keep Reading ...
• We Counsel both Women and Men
in INDIVIDUAL PERSONAL THERAPY sessions with
a Buddhist-informed theoretical base, as well as
Western contemporary approaches to the mind
and emotions.
• RELATIONSHIP Counseling for Partnerings
of all arrangements and configurations: Be Honst--
Tell the Truth about your 'experience' now --
Couples, Marriages and Family Groups.
Inter-active, face to face, very personal,
‘tough-love’ and often very directive -
when appropriate - in clear,
truthful, effective sessions..
________________
PLEASE NOTE ~
• ALL counseling sessions are 'live' in-office visits. We must limit counseling sessions to
our Southern California LOCAL AREA, mostly greater LOS ANGELES residence-based clients only.
• 'Phone Counseling-sessions' later on, when necessary, will be for 'established clients' with us.
• We offer a First-Time FREE phone consultation to local greater Los Angeles area callers.
We'd certainly need to talk with you on the phone first. It's all about developing a sound 'ground'
of genuine communication -- not for the sake of all sorts of 'rules' and stuff...
Please ASK US PLENTY of QUESTIONS and really feel out if "Spiritual Adulthood" sessions might be for you --
( We can possibly refer you to qualified Buddhist counselors in your own regional area if you email us.)
______________________________________________________________________
• ONGOING REGULAR SESSIONS are by a mutually arranged fee & by appointment only.
• We offer AFFORDABLE NEGOTIABLE Sliding-scale Lower-fee Sessions
for those who really need it. We do not take insurance plans, HMOs etc.
• We offer a much more generous EXTENDED SESSION-TIME than is usual...
ALL sessions are given much more than the standard therapy-hour's time (:55 min ).
We offer you usually about one hour+20 min (:80 min) to allow time to go really
deep as you need to... without feeling cut off or hurried.
• A FIRST-TIME PHONE INQUIRY is always Best & much more immediate for us to respond to --
to your issues & feelings ... ambivalent emails back & forth really does not work well at all.
Please Telephone Us -- we'd need to talk 'live' first, if you sincerely wish to inquire further.
• LOCAL PHONE TIMES: NOON to 6 PM any day is the best time to reach us - 310-450-2268.
AND we just may be in session when you call. Leave a message + local phone number.
If Voice Mail answers, please leave a very complete message with your best phone number(s)
& how long you’ll actually be there. How you can best be reached. Also leave any other
phone numbers, CELL phone number & times we can reach you later on --
and please speak slowly & clearly. It is important that you try your best to
make yourself ‘accessible’, so we can reach you & you can 'reach' yourself !
Please, Make Yourself Easy To Reach.
______________________________________________________________________
" As human beings, our greatness lies
not so much in being able to remake the world...
As in being able to remake ourselves.
Become the changes you want to see in the world" ~ Gandhi
" Begin as creation, become a Creator. Never wait at a barrier " ~ Rumi
"The limits of the possible can only be defined
by going beyond them into the impossible." ~ Arthur C. Clarke
Good, but impossible resolutions, are simply checks
that men draw on a bank where they have no account.
Start with the eminently 'possible'. ~ Oscar Wilde
" While one person hesitates
because they feel insecure and inferior,
the other is busy making mistakes aplenty
and becoming quite superior." ~ The Tao
___________________________________
CONTACT PERSON: AKASA LEVI, DhMA ~
______________________________________
• Akasa Levi, DhMA (D.Min) resident teacher for spiritual direction ~ 310-450-2268
We practice as Buddhist ministers, not as licensed MFT or PhD clinical psychologists.
We take in a much broader scope than just the psychological. We address the cultivation
of a very contemporary Spirit in the difficult modern society we live in.
Educating the Spirit gives you a wider base to work with.
“DESTINY is every step we’re taking
and going thru right now to get there”
~ Grandfather Bearheart, Creek elder
Appologies About our WEBSITE PAGE
You're invited to visit here, our fledgling web-page in-progress:
http://dharmahere310.blogspot.com
http://buddhistcounselingtherapysantamonica.blogspot.com
So you'll get some more flavor to what our foundational 'meditation philosophy' is all about. It's a more 'radical' form of Buddhism - geared to the arts & free thought-minded. Please enter the Whole URL in as it is a site still in progress. Thanks
By The Way ~ I and some friends on the Way -- returnrd from the Road in the early 80's and started up sitting groups early onand launched scrappy clunky websites-- and fronly nwe never got beyound that point - we still sit meditation in each others houses -- House Sittin Meditation we called it. are an easy-going bunch of Santa Monica Beach Buddhas - and a real bona-fide click n' point fancy 'website' is almost too much extra work for us to get into -- so please pardon us, you gotta scroll down our message, just like this posting page.
______________________________________________________________________
OVERVIEW ...
"There is no such thing as a 'problem'
without a 'gift' for you in its hands.
Sometimes you have problems
because you need their gifts.
It is through gifts that you grow." ~ Richard Bach
THE PROBLEM
• BRING YOU LIFE BACK
FROM THE 'EXILE' OF YOUR SPIRIT
and INTO A SACRED BALANCE AGAIN!
>>> WHATEVER IT IS, YOU'RE "A-NOT-SO-HAPPY-PERSON" <<<
Many, many folks aren’t. We're in very agitated, anxious, turbulent, uncertain times right now. Career and Life-Purpose Despair, Emotional Stuff, Mid-Life Changes or Painful Relationship Dilemmas personally don't make it easier. So please, go 'see' somebody and really start working it out. 'You' - really being heard from way deep inside and coached forward and through by a counseling therapist who can deeply understand you – human to human.
So get out of your own 'protective' self-imposed isolation: “I can do it by myself” mantra - reinforced by ego-pride-shame-hurt-loss-fear-cycles and just put yourself into counseling sessions for awhile. It'll be good for you - you'll get relief and even some joy and laughter. This is where you can work on your stuff and your Soul on a 'frequent enough' basis to make a really noticeable difference. At least phone us. There is no obligation to have a free phone-consultation with us to see if this could feel good and workable for you...
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ARE YOU FEELING ‘DISSED’? ~ DISAPPOINTED DISCOURAGED DISTRESSED Disagreeable Discomforted Disconnected Disconcerted Discontent Disdainful Disgruntled Disgusted Disharmonious and Disheartened -- Disillusioned Disintegrated Distressed Dismayed Dismal Disorganized Disoriented Disregarded Dissatisfied Distant Distraught Distrustful and very Disturbed about it all -- definitely pissed off
This whole ‘Dis’ this or ‘Dis’ that thing - about your life? You CAN change it! We can help and assist you. It's a very old formula for personal challenge - but YOU DO have to show up for yourself to make it happen. Get some Quality Counseling Therapy - somewhere, anywhere - it may be a place for you to start.
Be very welcome to inquire about us.
"Eighty percent of success is just showing up" ~ Woody Allen
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UNCOMMON PEOPLE speak ....
" Every community needs
a group of angelic troublemakers "
~ Bayard Rustin,
black activist social reformer
"Our constant inquiry is our passion
and our passion is our task.
The rest is the madness of art."
~ Henry James, "The Middle Years"
"Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything
that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision
against the play-it-safers, he creatures of the commonplace,
the slaves of the ordinary." ~ Sir Cecil Beaton
"Be not afraid of absurdity -
do not shrink from the fantastic!
Within a dilemma - choose
the most unheard-of,
he most audacious solution!
De l'audace! De l'audace!
Et encore de l'audace!
Be audacious!" ~ Karen Blixen
_________________________________________________
More On The UNCOMMON... and again
UNHAPPY 'UNCOMMON' PEOPLE are sensitive, creative,
individualistic, higher-consciousness oriented people -
artistic, intellectual, mystical, musical, poetic or spiritual.
So you probably need a 'Non-traditional Therapist'
who Understands “non-mainstream”, non-Matrix lifestyles --
and who is deeply empathic and genuinely understands
'uncommon' and ‘unusual’ or ‘non-ordinary’ people -
who are quite unique or gifted, but unhappy.
________________________________
• You may be a very 'individual' person who feels very naturally inward, spiritual oriented - and yet you're struggling to get ‘worldly’ problems/emotional issues handled realistically and with integrity as well -- yet without you having to commit to any spiritual path whatsoever!
We offer NO religious preaching or dogma - nothing to ‘believe’ in. Just the emergence of your own individual true ‘knowing’ and personal excellence! We want to assist you in discovering a 'natural unfolding' of unshakable balance, boundless wisdom and joy ! And your innate good humor! Liberating a new sense of caring and connectedness with yourself, other people and the universe. An expanded inner acceptance and outer effectiveness. ‘True’ happiness totally independent of the unavoidable effects of ‘everyday’ circumstances
and conditions! Really 'true freedom' as they've spoken about in Asian teachings for millenia !!
_____________________________________
You may want to talk to someone
who has training in both worlds:
psychology AND spirituality.
At “SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD” we offer
a uniquely combined counseling: an innovative,
wholistic, Asian, 'spiritual variation' of therapy
based in pragmatic, practical Buddhist psychology.
Created for intelligent people - sensitive people -
creative people - odd, uncommon people…
_____________________________
WHAT FOLLOWS IS GOING TO TAKE SOME MORE TIME & SOME MORE PATIENCE ON YOUR PART
TO READ & SORT THRU -- YOU DO NOT HAVE TO READ IT ALL AT ONCE, TAKE IT IN SMALL BITES, SKIP AROUND IN IT -- YOU'LL CERTAINLY KNOW A LOT MORE ABOUT WHAT YOU NEED WHEN YOU'RE DONE READING THIS ...
______________________________________
A Basic Problem:
Emotions get to run thinking.
Thoughts get so embedded in feelings ~
Confusion, hopeless, numb... angry & sad
MAYBE YOU'VE BECOME
SO OVERWHELMINGLY ‘IDENTIFIED’
OVER-INVOLVED IN YOUR OWN
DIFFICULT 'LIFE-STORY'
That You Just Can’t See
The Forest Because of All The Trees!
Your 'Story' of being such a driven 'winner' or a victimized 'loser' - or just a plain nobody ’out there’ - you're just so overwhelmed - or feeling so isolated -that you just plain 'hurt'. Maybe you’ve lost the path, or forgotten the way, or just feel so ineffective in your 'deeper' inner-search. Or you’ve just never yet really sought out Who ‘You’ really, really are - ‘in here’. Inside.
RE-DISCOVERING and REFINING "Yourself" - totally defined in/on your OWN TERMS ! (not society’s or religion's terms). YOUR Own Terms is what 'therapy of the spirit' is all about ! Therapy of the 'True' Spirit is really where ALL mind/spirit/soul-healing MUST start. True therapy has to start and end with the Heart ! Otherwise it ain't True. It’s been that way in every culture all through time! It's just only that until very recently,
the 'choices' of that healing have always been so restricted and few... either doctors or the church. No longer. Every approach world-wide is now available to you! It's from that Very Big Approach that you can truly find yourself and then truly give back to others in a valuable, clear, easy-going and natural way ... true 'goodness'.
Faith in ourselves simply as Humans restored --and it can be 'spiritual'. AND, Totally NON-RELIGIOUS --Consider that!
__________________________________
“The SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD PROJECT”
is a Buddhist-based Psycho/Spiritual oriented Counseling and Alternative Therapy.
The world renown and respected ancient tradition of Buddhist psychology is a path of cultivating a 'transcendent' - a 'higher sanity' - a very clear-seeing ability for yourself. By developing this wisdom-understanding, you are now available to generate a much more all-inclusive compassion - which leads to an authentic peace in ourselves, which we can then extend out to our family, friends and the world. Learning & using 2500 year-old tested self-development approaches and techniques towards a clear, wholesome, peaceful, joyful mind. Traditional Buddhism is absolutely NOT a‘religious path’ but more of a practical, pragmatic, highly intelligent ‘Humanism’ - there are NO gods and NO worship or NO religious superstitions involved in anything we offer in any way whatsoever. Just discovering and uncovering the essence of a sane, wise, peaceful, pure spirit that is YOU.
_____________________________
“And then the day came
when the risk to remain
tight in a bud was more painful
than the risk it took to blossom” ~ Anais Nin
_________________________________
" FORGIVENESS Is Giving Up
All Hope For A Better Past! " ~ Aba Gayle
____________________________________
“ BREAKDOWN often PRECEEDS BREAKTHROUGH.. “
______________________________________________
A JOYFUL DISCLAIMER and A Statement of Philosophy ...
Who We Are In Our Hearts and In Our Heads
as a 'Spiritually-Based' Counseling Service ~
Akasa's Theory of Everything --
Now Go Home and Leave me alone --
Just a Bad day with Truth, and without Charm...
We are truly 'non-denominational' and 'non-religious' and offfer an inclusive welcome eo all Journeyers of all Ways, or especially even those of no way. 'Spiritual' doesn't mean 'Religion'. Actually, you can't even become a 'Buddhist', as that too is just another appelation --a 'Label'. We've turned Words into Things. Something to lean on.Safe.
Theory of Everything -- The ONE Web of existence, the 'Conscious-Life' part of the web that has the conditions to support LIFE. That's THAT. That's ALL. It's Alive. Lif e-consciousness gone 'Live' has many 'Names' in many different world cultures. The ONE Web 'itself', really has NO name at all -- YHVH -- All cultures on the planet call it ‘The One’ ( 1. ) So we just simply call it "EVERYTHING". All of 'Creation' itself. ‘Creator’ and ‘Creation’ is all the same thing, the same One. We simply leave it at that. Adoni Eluhanu Adoni Eckhud -- One is One and there is nothing outside of it. It's All ONE. You gotta’ love it all. NOW --
We try to love it All. Most of the time, piece by piece in peace. If Done, press DONE.If next press Next or Submit. This can go on forever. It was planned that way. That's how we got here.
" There is no such thing as a strictly 'secular' therapy - or that a therapy is 'non-spiritual' .. That’s where Medical Mental Sciences are naïve. EVERY 'therapy' is spiritual if it deals with matters of the heart and emotions and feelings. Buddhist approaches in particular, are 'spiritual' BUT non-religious. The historical Buddha was a Humanist & a Pragmatist. There's a freedom of intelligence & openness to that - a big difference. "
We particularly use the 'Buddhist brand-name' because those Asian cultures have got some of the most skillfully mature, very grounded, least misleading, most inclusive and the very best of the mind-healing techniques available so far - so far as we've come across. So we use 'em. And we're still strongly very eclectic: we use many diverse approaches - so we'll use what YOU need, not what 'we' like best or 'believe in'. We're on your side! We practice as Buddhist ministers not as licensed MFT , LCSW, PhD or clinical psychologists.
_____________________________________________________________
• BIOGRAPHY: AKASA LEVI, DhMA (D.Min) - our counseling therapist/facilitator -
________________________________________________________________
Now 64 - Akasa Levi was an ordained American Theravada Buddhist forest monk in the 1970's
during a decade of living in Asia. He was a student of the renown Goenkaji in Bodhgaya-India,
where the famous Bodhi Tree the Buddha sat under is. He then became a student of Tibetan
Lama Thubten Yeshe & Zopa Rinpoche of Nepal, founders of Wisdom Publications in Boston
(www.wisdompubs.org) and Advaita master Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj in Bombay.
Akasa was in seminary & ordained by Sangha Nayake Ananda Maitreya, lineage-head of the
Amarapura Burmese Sect in Sri Lanka. He studied Western analytic therapy at UCLA after
returning to Western culture. Akasa practices therapy in Santa Monica California, USA.
He teaches a non-religious style of Buddhist group meditation with The Laughing Buddha Sangha --
and leads men’s groups at The L.A. Medicine Men’s Lodge which he founded. Otherwise this
old ‘tribal elder’ can be found in his garden or out dancing. Gardens & Dancing are his two
favorite metaphors.
Full biography & possibly a photo at http://www.zentrance.com (enter it all in)
• For Other Information - Please visit our shared meditation web site at
The LA Dharma Community under The Laughing Buddha Sangha
http://www.LADharma.org under Links/Teacher Links
We'll gladly give you a FREELY offered Local Phone Consultation – no obligation!
-- or to set up an actual appointment.
• 310-450-2268 ~ PLEASE USE THE PHONE, as there is NOT much else we can tell you by email.
The phone is more personal - and some quality 'personal attention' is probably what you need
for yourself right now -- more 'closeness' rather than distance...
We know that when you're feeling vulnerable, skittish or just plain bad & sad --
sometimes 'reaching out' is hard -- please, do take up the challenge!
"Take the first step in faith.
You don't have to see the whole staircase
-- just take the first step."
~ Martin Luther King
"If you do not see God in the next person
you meet, you need look no further."
~ Gandhi
__________________________
“La vraie générosité envers l'avenir
consiste à tout donner au présent.”
“True generosity towards the future
is to give everything to the present.”
~ Albert Camus
" THE GREATEST RISK IS NOT TAKING ONE! "
___________________________________
“The SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD PROJECT
is a Member of S.E.N.
(Spiritual Emergency Network
at Esalen Institute in Big Sur).
We are an outreach-project of
“The Laughing Buddha Sangha”
in Santa Monica, California.
We are affiliated with
The L.A. Dharma Community
( visit our collective website
www.LADharma.org ) and utilize
the practice-approaches offered by
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
in Woodacre/Santa Rosa, CA.
We are non-denominational ,
definately non-religious and
welcome all journeyers
of all Ways or even none.
______________________
QUOTES ~ The Gift of Wise Words
“Whatever the Question ~
Love and Kindness is the answer!”
~ The Dalai Lama
To measure you by your smallest deed
is to judge the ocean by the frailty of it's foam.
To judge you by your failures is to cast blame
upon the seasons for their inconsistencies
~ Kahlil Gibran
What good you do is of little significance,
But it is very important that you do it.
WE Must BE the change we want to see in the world "
~ Mahatma Gandhi
______________________________
"If we have no peace, it is because
we have forgotten that
we belong to each other."
~ Mother Teresa
"Wise, clear understanding is key
to the dissolution of all ignorances --
Then be Kind whenever possible.
It is always possible."
~ Dalai Lama
"One common mistake is to think
that your reality is THE reality.
You must always be prepared to
leave your reality for a greater one."
~ Amaji Meera
"You yourself,
as much as anyone in the entire Universe,
deserves your OWN affection, care and love.
You can explore the whole universe looking
for someone who is more deserving of your
love and affection than you are yourself...
and you will not find that person anywhere.
To be maximum effective -
the Practice of Loving-Kindness
must absolutely begin with yourself!" ~ The Buddha
___________________________________
“Who was born first, 'You' or 'The World'?
As long as you give first place to ‘The World’
-- you are bound by it.
Once you realize, beyond all trace of doubt,
that the ‘world’ is in you --
-- and not 'you' in the world,
right then and there, you are out of it.
Of course, your body remains in the world
and 'of' the world,
but YOU are not >d-e-l-u-d-e-d< by it.”
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
________________________________________________
“If you don't understand that ‘whatever’ appears IS meditation --
what can you achieve by applying an ‘antidote’?
Perceptions and conceptions, false ideas and notions
are not abandoned by discarding them --
but are 'spontaneously freed' when recognized
and 'realized' as only an Illusion." ~ Niguma Dakini
________________________________________
They drew a circle that shut me out --
Calling me a heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win --
We drew a circle that took them in.
~ Edwin Markham "Outwitted"
A Sufi sage once said ~
"The best thing is not to hate anyone --
Only to Love.
That is the only way out of it.
As soon as you have Forgiven
those whom you intensely hate --
You have simply gotten rid of them!
Then you have no reason to 'hate' them --
You just forget."
~ Hazrat Inayat Khan
"Do not look back in Anger,
or forward in Fear,
but around in Awareness" ~ James Thurber
"At night make me fearlessly one with the darkness ~
In the morning make me optimistically one with the light"
~ Wendell Berry
__________________________________________________________
You may want to hi-lite, copy & send this quote below to people you know...
some of the wisest guidance you'll ever read, put to personal use or offer.
__________________________________________________
here it is ~
"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart.
Try to love the 'Questions' themselves - like locked rooms
and like books that are written in a foreign language.
Do not, just right now, seek for the Answers.
The 'Answers' which cannot now be given to you -
because you would not be able to actually ‘live’ them.
And the point is to ‘live’ everything - experiencing everything.
At present, you need to live the Questions themselves.
Perhaps you will then gradually, without even noticing it,
live along some day into the true Answer. Your answer."
~ Rilke's "Letters to a Young Poet" (1903-1908)
end
balance is unfinihed
___________________________
and Good Old Buddhist BOOK List update 10. 2016.docx
http://buddhistmeditationsantamonica.blogspot.com/
Maybe some pieces & parts of what follows, is also what may be going on with you...
ARE YOU HAVING A SPIRITUAL CRISIS: a ‘SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY’? An emergency of your spirit? Are you having an authentic ‘SPIRITUAL EMERGENCE’?
A true ‘EXISTENTIAL CRISIS of sorts? A crisis of your very 'Being-ness'? Or a Spiritual Break-through and Emergence? Which? Are your values & views gradually or radically changing? Wanting to genuinely 'upgrade' your consciousness? Going towards the authentically 'Spiritual' and not just some sort of delusive 'magical-thinking'? How to know? Are you stuck? Are you feeling a bit helpless, powerless - out of balance - frustrated - going thru difficult changes? Loss of purpose? Confused? Moody? Disturbing emotional swings?Dead-ended? What to do -- where to fit in -- how to make it all work out? Who with experience can you talk and relate to about it? We offer counseling and therapy for people who are beginning the really 'higher process' of change where it merges with the spiritual. You may need to talk to someone who has training in both worlds: psychology AND spirituality.
we also offer to the community ~
• Creatively-minded Corporate/Business Consultation: Human Resource Resolution
and 'Spirit In The Workplace' development. Very way out of the box stuff. We also consult
on the American 'spiritual mind-set', 'The Crisis In Faith', 'Loss of Classical Mythologies
to Technology', 'What's Wrong With Our Minds & Culture?' and current 'religious trends'
(a lot of it quite unconscious, un self-identified & dreadfully naive) within the
contemporary American/Western cultural praadigm as a whole.
• We Counsel all manifestations of alternative & emerging life-styles: mixed racial/religious
partnerings & marriages; gay & bi curious, str8 still exploring. It's the 21st Century:
It's a big wide open world out there now... We offer bridge-building between communities:
people of all colors, religions, diverse cultures & ethnic origins. A pluralistic society brings
so many awesome enrichments as well as struggles of balance & new found respect ...
Or maybe..
SO YOU’RE EVOLVING SPIRITUALLY and YOU’RE CURRENT ‘REGULAR’-STYLE THERAPIST JUST ISN’T on your track, doesn't seem to 'get' you - sorry, but he/she is just not! They may give you a nod of support to your 'spiritual pursuits' but can offer not much else in that direction. Here too, you may need to talk to someone who has training in both worlds - psychology and spirituality.
Do you have unresolved feelings, unusual/disturbing states of consciousness, or deep questionings around your present ongoing spiritual growth process now? What now? We offer experienced understanding, caring assistance, careful explanations and understandings, and crisis counseling for people to sort through and integrate a wide range of feelings that may have arisen: exploring both the dark and the light side - quite transformative in itself -- emerging with a new sense of clarity and well-being.
“It is still up to you to choose
to join with ‘truth’ or with ‘illusion’.
But remember that to choose one
is to let go of the other.
When the way comes to an end,
then Change -
having changed, you pass through." ~ The Tao
MENTORING ~ Mentorship is a Relationship --post--
Akasa Levi at BUDDHIST COUNSELING + MINDFULNESS MEDITATION Changes Our Whole Relationship to "Reality" Itself ! -
*Mentorship is a Relationship* *"* Mentoring" is a process that *always* involves communication and is strongly relationship-based..." This good, seminal article is writen like a personal reflection or opinion essay that states the *Wikipedia editor's personal feelings
Akasa Levi at BUDDHIST COUNSELING + MINDFULNESS MEDITATION Changes Our Whole Relationship to "Reality" Itself ! - 3 months ago
we also offer to the community ~
• Creatively-minded Corporate/Business Consultation: Human Resource Resolution
and 'Spirit In The Workplace' development. Very way out of the box stuff. We also consult
on the American 'spiritual mind-set', 'The Crisis In Faith', 'Loss of Classical Mythologies
to Technology', 'What's Wrong With Our Minds & Culture?' and current 'religious trends'
(a lot of it quite unconscious, un self-identified & dreadfully naive) within the
contemporary American/Western cultural praadigm as a whole.
• We Counsel all manifestations of alternative & emerging life-styles: mixed racial/religious
partnerings & marriages; gay & bi curious, str8 still exploring. It's the 21st Century:
It's a big wide open world out there now... We offer bridge-building between communities:
people of all colors, religions, diverse cultures & ethnic origins. A pluralistic society brings
so many awesome enrichments as well as struggles of balance & new found respect ...
END
end.
( 15 ) FILMS – for contemplation or just fun
• Buddhist or Dharma or Consciousness-themes
• Best Western Films / Best Asian & Foreign Films _______________________________________
( 16 ) The ARTS, SPRITUALITY & MEDITATION
ART-MAKING & Art-making meditators
• ART :: it's Ancient Relationship with Meditation
• The Benefits to art-maker's mindfulness & awareness
• NO 'BELIEFS' - just observing, watching, witnessing,
Reality without 'beliefs', without buying-in or compromise
• Silly ZEN Story: "The Purpose of Meditation Training"
for humanitarian-conscious global causes.
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