Tim Rowe

I rarely write anything of a personal nature on this blog, but 2011 was a very important year for me.

Just before Xmas 2010 I received an email from someone who wanted to learn to meditate as they had been diagnosed as terminally ill and wanted something to help with the distress brought on by this.

She had found me on a website where I advertise my services, which I had only had 2 or 3 responses from that had lead to any fruitful interaction.

When I went to see her (she also happened to live only half a mile away from here) I was able to not only teach her to meditate but to employ a couple of trauma reduction techniques I had used over the years in order to take the ‘sting’ out of the moment of diagnosis.

This woman (who I’ll call ‘Jane’) also mentioned that she was ‘not the spiritual one, but my husband is’. I was introduced to ‘Tom’ – a Glaswegian with whom I found I had several things in common: we had both been, or were currently, songwriters – and we were both massive Steely Dan fans.

We also both found The Gospel of Thomas to be personally meaningful.

The couple mentioned that although they had lived in the area for several years, they hardly knew anyone – partly because they hadn’t met anyone of a like mind.

I mentioned that my wife and I used to host support groups based on Universal Principles and would they be interested in participating? They said that they certainly would.

I mentioned the idea to an Osteopath friend of mine ‘Cathy’, who also seemed keen on the idea as was her partner, ‘John’- who joined the group a little later on. He was shortly followed by an Astrologer friend of ours, ‘Lucy’.

We started meeting on a weekly basis and, over the months many synchronistic events occurred – too numerous to mention here.

One day, I had a phone call from Cathy, saying that her daughter had committed suicide.

The next few months were, as you can imagine, very intense. Jane’s condition was rapidly worsening, and both Cath and John were dealing with the grief – not only around the death of their daughter, but the awful circumstances that had come to light which preceded that event.

The group continued to meet on a weekly basis – even later in the year when Jane went into a local Hospice for a while.

I think that everyone, including myself, was forced into a postion of surrender – because of the utter powerlessness they felt around the whole situation. Any traces of ‘fix it’ tendencies that remained among the healers among us were soon extinguished as we surrendered each moment to What Is.

I think I learned two main lessons: One is that all the healing teachniques I had learned over the years were rendered useless and palled by comparison to Presence. Simply Being. The other was a deep sense of humility: there were times when I was sitting around Jane’s bed when I felt that I was sitting at the feet of the Buddha, and that were are all indeed both students and teachers.

Although people percieved me as the leader of the group, it took me many months to actually accept that role, and to reassess what I think ‘leadership’ means.

Jane passed on a few days before Xmas. And although there was a sense of loss, there was also one of relief and release. A few of the group, including myself had brief ‘visits’ from Jane, reassuring us that all was indeed well.

2012 is going to be the beginning of a new chapter – not only for myself, but for the world – particularly from the end of May.

I rarely give advice, but on this occasion I will: Go within regularly – contact your Soul in whichever way works for you. Surround yourself with true friends and companions and commune with them on a regular basis. Be flexible, and travel light.

Read full review of The Oram Tapes: Volume One – DAPHNE ORAM on Boomkat.com ©

Some years ago, my wife and I hosted a support group based on Universal Principles as expressed by Arnold Patent.

These Principles are based on those expressed in A Course in Miracles

We have recently started it up again.

Arnold Patent Clips from Leap www.leapmovie.com from AVAIYA MEDIA on Vimeo.

(I’m the one with the blonde uke, bright green T-shirt, and maroon skater shoes.)

In case you havn’t seen it elsewhere – or heard it for that matter, I’m a Russian narrator “Uncle Ivan” in this production.

http://thebabayagasaga.podbean.com/2011/05/18/the-baba-yaga-saga-trailer/

Having spent over 20 years and several times that in Pounds Sterling on books, the (thankfully) occasional course and (even more, thankfully) occasional visit to a Guru (most of whom these days are the “false coin”) I thought it was time to share my accumulated – and more importantly, personally experienced wisdom so that you can save time (possibly) and money (definitely) in your journey through this dream we call life:

There follow two sections: The first is essential, the second highly recommended.

Section 1.

1. Find out who you truly are, have always been, and always will be, for ever and ever. Amen: The easiest and most direct method is some form of self-inquiry. The simplest form is to ask oneself the question, when a thought arises: “To whom does this thought come?” The obvious answer is “To me!” (sometimes accompanied by a “Duh!”) Then inquire, “Who is the ‘I’ – whom am I?” Don’t answer that! Stop! and experience a non-answer. That’s right ‘ nothing, stillness, “The Gap” – call it what you will. Repeat as often as you remember. There are other methods which I won’t bother to go into here.

Meditation is another method. It at least tends to make the mind more quiescent. Personally I use it sometimes as a quick precursor to self-inquiry or for longer periods to help create Theta brainwaves. Remember though that the real advantage of meditation is to make contact with The Self. Why? All else is illusion.

Basically you are either seeing “through a glass, darkly” (your conditioning) or you are seeing with as much “God Consciousness” as you have been able to “embody” (a bad term – as “It” is Omnipresent, but it serves here.)

If you find self-inquiry as described above difficult you are welcome to contact me via the contact form on this site, so that I can elaborate or show you another method.

2. Be very aware that you are, most of the time, operating out of a conditioned mind: This will be an accumulation of societal, parental, educational, cultural and other conditioning. Possibly even more importantly, whether you “believe” in it or not, is pre-natal or past-life conditioning.

You will also be massively conditioned by a Core Belief (in my experience, sometimes more than one) which is unconsciously running the show you call your life. It may be something like “I’ll always fail / never win” and it will be holding you back, albeit unconsciously until you a) become aware of it and b) heal it by some form of integration / letting go / acceptance / forgiveness. This is likely to be a belief which lead to your demise in a past life. Whether you believe in them or not, is not the point here. For example: Your tribe abandoned you and this lead to your death due to a hostile environment with nothing to sustain you, which lead to the belief that “I will always be abandoned” (and it will kill me.)*

However, the most important belief that it is vital to heal is your imagined separation from God / Self. That, and the fear and guilt you feel because of it,  is the real cause of all your pain and suffering.

3. Acceptance / Letting go / Forgiveness / Call it what you will. You will also be hampered by stuff that you are attached to or that you have an aversion to – people, places or things. If you can’t let them go, they will eat you up over time. Enough said.

Section 2.

1. Hang out with like-minded (hearted) others. The best way to do this is in a democratic way with no leader or guru. The simplest way is to sit together in silence with the intent of “Just Being” and connecting the Your Self / Selves. This is incredibly potent if done on a regular (weekly or more) basis.

It has to be said that it is more potent if there is at least one person in the group who has some measure of what some have called “Universal Consciousness” or “God Consciousness” in the group, but sometimes that can be fraught with problems. However this usually happens only when there is a more obvious leader who sets themselves up as a “guru type.”

2. Find a confidante / confessor. This can be anyone from a trusted best friend or even life partner (not always recommended due to possible lack of impartiality!) Spit out your crap at them from time to time. Just make sure that you have chosen someone who is a good, unconditional listener – someone who is able to be present and really “hear” you.

There may be more added to this later, but this is the skinny.

* My thanks to the late but ever-present Barbara Mary Muhl for this insight.

A while back I recorded a part as a slightly camp Star Ship Captain for a spoof audio drama. Well, it’s finally been released. You can find both current episodes here: http://www.psiphiaudio.com/shows/psi-phi-shenanigans/