New Teacher, New Thoughts

Editor’s Note: Joan was accredited in November 2024

My intention at the beginning of our accreditation week was, “Make friends with Chi — change my vision of where I am looking. For the internal center, I now want to look for that internal source that has always been there. That unconditional love, inner gaze, mysterious stillness at the center of my being, a connection to Center.”

My experience since then continues to be an increase of present moment awareness. Cooking dinner just now, my awareness was so focused on mashing potatoes, feeling my feet on the floor, there were no other thoughts than what I was doing.

With encouragement to practice outdoors from my second instructor, Lisa Stroyan, I chose the Poudre River cache close to my home. From the riverbank, my vision had a clarity that surprised me. Where my sight line saw a leafless tree, I began to notice across the expanse of river on the far bank, a rope swing — when moments before I saw only the tree from which it hung. The reflection of as above, so below is apparent, with fallen trees and grasses and sky undifferentiated from the water of the pond. In “The Glory of Creation” in Spiritual Odyssey, Justin writes: “… if one gazes at the silent hills and rock, one will find that they are singing the Glory of Creation. We could call this all a ‘sea of consciousness,’ but that would be just a concept. We can only be sure of a ‘total awareness,’ and perhaps Past, Present and Future all exist in this fully aware and joyous Now.”