Episodes
Thursday May 17, 2018
TURNING POINTS AND TRANSFORMATIONS - DESCEND THEN TRANSCEND
Thursday May 17, 2018
Thursday May 17, 2018
We must do shadow work, to go down into the depths of our psyche in order to the work of Transcendence. We must clear our subconscious debris, go down into the tomb, die to the false self, so we can rise up in glory and radiance and truth. Without doing depth work, we are shallow people. We must acknowledge our “weeds” of darkness, let them grow along side the “wheat” (light) in us, and be transformed through a process of coming into greater awareness. Bryan talks about Jungian Psychology, the shadow, and talks about the path to the True Christed Self. He talks about how suffering is a choice that we make, not a necessity. Recognizing darkness in us helps us to evolve and grow by shining light on our shadow nature that we repress from conscious awareness.
The songs you here in this program are written, composed, and sung by Bryan. Check out all Bryan Rice's published books and music at bryanrice.org.
Friday Dec 09, 2016
Friday Dec 09, 2016
EPISODE 7
This episode starts with the notion that Intentions behind rituals as well as the “Presence” brought to them, helps to create an interior experience free of ruminating thoughts. This is a continuation from the discourse in episode 6.
Bryan talks more about his “God Shock” experience and how it influenced him to answer callings to many spiritual roles. But he is able to admit that the callings he received are not to be defined by the various roles he plays. He talks about not taking self-definitions seriously and renounces the idea of specialness. He shares his perspective on how, he, like Jeshua (Jesus) had to face mirages in the desert wilderness of his mind and had to wrestle with his ego. Bryan says he was called to a path called “The Way”, not to an institution or a role.
He briefly mentions all the ways we crucify ourselves and divide our psyche. The shattered psyche, expressed many times through mental illness, is the experience of the crown of thorns. Then he says that a sick mind creates a sick body. The body has experiences, but is not the “experiencer”. He points to the “Witnessing Consciousness”. He believes like other spiritual teachers that everything is evolving back towards God. The way of suffering that Bryan has traveled has allowed him to become a healer. He says that religion is a means not an end and that he is on a path of inclusivity after his awakening to Love.
The “Way”, the path, is what original followers of Christ followed before the institution of state religion. This “Way” includes “Life” or “Abundance”, “Death” (to the false self), “Resurrection” of the True Self, or what Hindus call the “Atman”, then it culminates in “Ascension” or “Transcendence”, and then later into “Assumption” or what he calls “The Cosmic-Bliss- Principle”, known more traditionally as the many mansions of God. We are all called to this path in our lives. Jeshua (Jesus) as an enlightened, self-realized being, demonstrated that we can all walk this path and should. Many saints and mystics from all religions and spiritualities have went through all these stages in their lives.
The process of Ascension he says, is rising above thought (the barking dogs), rising above body consciousness (dog-like desires), rising above impulses (dog-like instincts), rising above chemical messages in the brain, and rising above all the physical manifestations that keep us matterward or in our egoic script and screenplay (maya and delusion). Heaven he says is experienced in the upper chakras of our astral anatomy. Our bodies experience internally, the Cosmic Bliss Principle. But we can experience a descent “hell” by solely identifying with the body.
Bryan wants people to recognize the darkness as well as the light. Not to be defined by our darkness, but to name it. He references the biblical image of the “Wheat and the Weeds” (Yang-Yin) and says they are within us. We are made of dark, light, and admixed energy and these all influence our perceptions of self, God, and creation and what we project and manifest.
Bryan ultimately admits that he had to stop priding himself on being “religious” and learn to just “Be”, meaning, “Be present as presence”. After his transfiguration-like experience he owned up to the fact that he will have to pay that forward and go back down the “mountain” back into the “valleys”, back into the world to serve, like the disciples of Jeshua (Jesus) were told to do after witnessing their master’s Transfiguration.
Bryan cautions people about the temptation to get stuck in the specialness (or inflation) felt after having a mystical experiences. He, though he resisted, had to go back into the world to “serve”. Bryan furthermore, is thankful for the gift of “Holy Tears” that he was given - the joy, that motivates him to help pull others out of fear into love, and ultimately out of afflictive emotions into uplifting emotions and states of being.
Ultimately, he sums up our purpose. It is to be aware, to be present, to know who we are, to know who we are in God, to allow God to live through us, and to see God in everyone else.