March 2009 Report: "Ramblings on Love, Life and Breath.” by Dan Brule

Hello Everyone!, Welcome to the March 2009 Report: "Ramblings on Love, Life and Breath.”

 

 

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Back on the farm, the mangos, bananas, strawberries, cantaloupe, watermelons, guava, avocados, tomatoes, and all the herbs and vegetables we planted are proliferating. This year, the gardens are at least twenty times bigger than last year! The well keeps getting deeper (we are digging it by hand). Many people are coming and going, and helping to create the dream. I can't wait to see what changes take place there in the three weeks that I'm away.

Here in Moscow, it's a winter wonderland! Visiting Russia is always a pleasure as well as a challenge. This marks twenty years since my first trip. Every visit gives me a chance to re-create myself as well as this work. It is an opportunity to start from the beginning, to be new again and again. Looking at life, at one's self and this work with new eyes and an open mind is always an enlightening experience.

 

I've made a lot of friends here in Russia over the years, and so I get to see many familiar faces as well as many new ones. Breathwork is such an awesome way for us to connect to each other and with what is deepest and highest within us. It is a real blessing to be taking part in this work even though playing in the garden has become my favorite passion!

In one way, being a breathworker is like being a midwife. You are there lending your loving presence to a natural and sacred process, simply encouraging a person to breathe and relax in awareness, and helping them in whatever other way life asks. Every day I celebrate the amazing benefits of this work. It's a powerful and beautiful thing to witness.

 

For me, breathwork is an opportunity to love people, an opportunity to express and reflect my highest aspirations. Every session is so amazing, so filled with new sensations and beautiful energies. I witness dramatic emotional and physical releases, psychological insights, and spiritual awakenings. And as we go deeper, as we go further, the process gets more subtle, more sublime!

 

Everyone has their own history, their own stuff, their own goals and patterns, and so each person's journey into breathwork can be quite different. I try to meet people at whatever level they are at. Many people use breathwork as a therapeutic tool. They use it to access and release suppressed energies, negative or limited programs or early conditioning; they use it to heal old traumas or to deal with physical, emotional or psychological problems.

But these days, I encourage people to forget about their issues and problems. I suggest that they use the breath to go directly to a place within them that has never been touched by anything that has happened in this world. It is a pure, powerful and ever-present space of being that remains unaffected by changing moods, points of view, or states of health. It cannot be influenced by anything or anyone, including ourselves! From this place, it is clear that there is nothing to do, nothing to change, and nothing to fix. From this place we realize that we are whole, we are one…we are love.

 

Here in Moscow, we are learning a lot about love and about ourselves. We know what love is only when we know who we are. And we know who we are only when we know what love is. Infinite love is the ultimate reality. In every moment, we are immersed in it, and we are filled with it: this is an inescapable fact. In order to suffer we have to forget, ignore, or deny this love.

 

Pure love is the most powerful energy on the planet. But pure love is very rare, and it's not what you think. Few of us have experienced pure love. It is always mixed with something: fear, need, control, manipulation, expectation, etc. There is no such thing as "my” love or "your” love. If it is real love, then it is universal.

 

Pure love doesn't need reasons (but the ego does). And so if we need a reason to love, it's probably not love. Love doesn't "want” anything. Wanting also comes from the ego. We confuse love with security because we are insecure. We confuse love with sex because we suppressed it growing up. We confuse love with control because others did it to us. None of this is good or bad, it is just human. These things get tangled up with love, and so it ultimately disappoints us. But in essence, all we can do is love each other.

 

Love is always there whether we are aware of it or not. When you slow down and tune into it, there it is…like an inner sparkle, a quiet living stillness. The body feels less solid. There is a tingling, as though every cell of the body is gently vibrating. Everyone feels this love during a spiritual breathing session, as our habitual consciousness falls away and is replaced for a time by the awareness of this pure energy of love.

 

Think of someone you love. Do it now. Can you feel the energy of that love? Go deep, beyond the specifics, beyond whether it is the love of a mother, or a son, or a brother, or a lover, or a friend. Feel the love beyond these particular forms and expressions. If you go deep enough you can even feel it with people you don't like. You can feel it with people you have judged, who bother you, and people who hurt you. If you go really deep you'll even feel it for the "worst” kind of people. (And they are the ones who need it the most!)

 

What stops us from living in this love all the time? The ego: habits of thinking, habits of feeling. Every time you focus on anything other than love, you strengthen the ego and those habits you ignore or even attack your real true self! Watch your emotional mind; whenever it holds on to a painful, negative or limiting thought, let it go. If you focus on love, your experience in the moment can only be one of ecstasy.

 

The ego is a habit of the mind, and it expresses itself again and again. Destroying it is impossible. Instead, we can train the mind and the ego to serve us in our awakening and our growth in love. Remember that what you think is not the same as what is. Thinking that we know is not the same as knowing. And knowing is much less important than being.

Watching the ego is most important when we are suffering, because in fact only the ego can suffer. The main thing is who or how we are being in each moment. And that is always a choice. 

 

 

Monitor your mental activities. Mastering the mind is not about holding perfect thoughts all the time. It is not possible to only have perfect or positive thoughts all the time. There is a rhythm to life. If your mind is open, negative thoughts will naturally pass through. The problem only arises when we attach to them or resist them, when we justify them, when we call them ours, or when we identify with them. Then they become our reality.

 

It is the same with emotions. If our heart is open, every kind of emotion will pass through our emotional body. Some emotions strengthen, soothe, and uplift us. Other emotions can cause separation; they drain our energy and lower our vibrations. We get to choose which ones to keep, to feed, or to call our own. In each moment, we have a choice over which thoughts and emotions we carry and use.

 

Learning to flow love energy is the game in breathwork. We are always already free! As breathworkers, we bring this truth to life. If you are up for this creative adventure, then take a look at the seminar schedule and make plans to attend one of the Breathwork programs in the Baja or on the road.

 

Oh, and make sure to check out the new documentary film about human potential called "What If?” (featuring yours truly). You can view it on line or order the DVD at: http://www.whatifthemovie.tv/? Click=212.

 

March 15- June 15: Baja Life Skills/Healing Arts & Breath Mastery Trainings (Ongoing)

June 19-21 Baja: First Annual Summer Gathering and "Concert for the Living Waters.”

July 4-14: Barcelona, Spain

July 16-23: Khabarovsk, Siberia

July 25-August 9: Kyrgyzstan/Kazakhstan (Issyk-kul Lake)

August 13-20:  Urbino, Italy (The Hill that Breathes)

August 24-31: Ufa/Neftekamsk, Bashkortostan

September 3-13: Moscow, Russia (The Open World Center)

September 24-Oct 2: Nassau, Bahamas

October 9-19: Santa Barbara, CA

November-May: Baja, Mexico

 

 

Over the years, I have had the privilege of meeting many outstanding teachers, healers, coaches and guides, and I have made many friends along the way. Here are a few of them that I'd like to promote this month. I invite you to visit their websites, and as I have, to benefit from their life changing work.

 

Robert Warren: www.itzconsulting.web. officelive.com

Jane Okondo: www.lovesbody.co.uk

Julia Miik: www.breathoflove.org

Phil Laut: www.phillaut.com

Ivonne Delaflor and Toby Alexander: www.transcendentalrebirthing. com

 

With love and gratitude to all and for all,

 

Dan