KAJAMA.COM NEWSLETTER

by Steve Taylor, author of many books on spirituality and psychology including 
The Clear Light, The Leap, and The Calm Center

2006 was a difficult year. In April our second child, Ted, was born. Ted was a lovely baby (and is a lovely boy now) but he seemed to be born without the need to sleep. At night it was difficult to settle him down, and when he finally did settle, it was usually only for a short time. He would usually wake several times throughout the night, every hour or so, and my wife and I would take turns getting up. This isn’t unusual for a new baby, but with Ted it went on for a long time. I was working as a college tutor, at the same time as working to meet the deadline for a book, and soon became exhausted (although not as exhausted as my wife). We also had Ted’s three year old brother to look after. Eventually - probably because of the stress - I became seriously ill for the first time in my life, leading to two weeks in hospital and an operation. Strangely enough, it was while I was in hospital that Ted finally - after nearly 9 months - settled down, and began to sleep through the night.

It was during this time of turmoil and stress that I began to write poems and short spiritual reflections. I’ve always loved poetry, and in my youth I had written a lot of poems and song lyrics (none of them particularly good). But it had been more than 10 years since I’d written a poem, and in any case, the pieces that were starting to come through me now were different. They weren’t prose, but they weren’t exactly poems. They were poetic, but a little too loose and free to correspond to traditional concepts of poetry.

The pieces seemed to arrive from nowhere, as if they had been slowly gestating inside me for years, waiting for the right moment to emerge. Phrases would form in my mind, and when I sat down to write them down, other phrases would follow, until complete pieces would be in front of me. It was similar to channelling - the ‘raw material’ flowed into me, and my task was to give it form, to mould and edit it into the right shape. I was surprised by the voice which spoke in the pieces - a wise, assured voice, more weighty and more profound than my normal writing voice. This voice came from the deepest and highest part of me, and was able to express profound insights easily and directly.

Ever since then, poems and spiritual reflections have continued to flow through me. Some of them are collected in my new book The Clear Light. Sometimes the pieces arise in such an involuntary way that I forget about them quickly and am surprised when I read them again, wondering if I actually did write them. They emerge from formless consciousness. As I put it in my new book:

Every morning when I wake up, I re-create myself.
I emerge from formless consciousness
like a diver rising to the surface, still immersed in bliss.
And slowly I remember the world and who I am.

Turmoil and Transformation

Years later, I began to wonder if there was any reason why I began to write these pieces. I think there may well be connection with the stress and turmoil of that period of my life. I’ve always been fascinated by the strong connection between psychological turmoil and spiritual awakening, which I explored in my book The Leap. Combined with an attitude of acceptance, turmoil can have an awakening effect. As I put it in The Clear Light:

Trauma can break you down to nothing
destroy the identity you spent your whole life
building up
like an earthquake that leaves you in ruins
or trauma can transform you
break open new depths and heights of you
give rise to a greater structure, a miraculous new self
and the only difference between them is acceptance.

There is a strong connection between psychological turmoil and creativity too. Musicians and writers sometimes find that their inspiration fades away when their lives are comfortable and stable, and that a period of turbulence - e.g. the break up of a relationship, illness, depression - can reawaken their creativity. And so it may be that the turmoil of this period of my life led to a spiritual opening and deepening which led to many powerful awakening experiences and also expressed itself creatively, enabling the channelling of these reflections and meditations.

My life is fairly stable now, and I’m in good health, and Ted has grown up into a wonderfully joyful and loving boy. And fortunately, the channel which opened up nine years ago has remained open. That wise assured and authoritative voice is still speaking through me. The pieces are still coming through fairly regularly, even though I don’t put any pressure on them. I feel massively grateful that new ideas and insights keep forming. I still feel deeply connected to that creative spiritual source - and I hope that reading these pieces has connected you to it too. Let me end with these words from The Clear Light:

Let’s meet purely in presence
without any conditions or concepts
knowing that in essence we are the same
and that in being we are one.

Steve Taylor is the author of several bestselling books on psychology and spirituality, including The Clear Light, The Leap, and The Calm Center. His articles and essays have been published in over 50 academic journals, magazines and newspapers, including Scientific American and Psychology Today. Since 2011, he has appeared annually in Watkin’s Mind Body Spirit magazine’s list of “the world’s 100 most spiritually influential living people.” He lives in Manchester, England, with his wife and three children. Find out more about his work at www.stevenmtaylor.com.

Excerpted from the book The Clear Light. Copyright ©2020 by Steve Taylor. Printed with permission from New World Library.

I met someone last April, and on that day, something happened with our eyes and the pulling in our stomachs that was so overwhelming. He feels what I feel, and I feel what he feels. The energies that ripple through us are incredible. I have dreams of him in which I'm standing watching us, and I feel everything as I watch, and we both disappear into light as if we melded into each other. His voice vibrates in my soul; the touch of his lips on mine calms my body. I cannot explain it with words. I know where he is and when he is calling me, and it's the same for him. We feel each other deeply, when we are together we are home, when we are apart we feel lonely. It feels like a pulling, like a rubber band. Whatever this is, I do know that it's not physical. It's like an awakening within our souls, something that has been recognized. Since we met, all sorts of things have been happening on a spiritual level. Could you please explain what this is? Some of my friends say that they see a light that surrounds us when we are close to each other. They say they have never seen anything like it. I can't explain the feeling that just holding his hand evokes; rushing energies flow up and into our bodies. Thanks in advance!

- "Wisdom"

Dreamchaser:

I am so incredibly glad that you took the time to write all this down for us. It fully and completely explains the power of a SOUL CONNECTION.

So often we humans rush around trying to find love. When we find someone that we deem to be "close enough," we try to make that work. We then wind up feeling empty, alone, unfulfilled, etc. Yet we continue to either try to make that relationship work or we move on to the next "close enough" person.

What you describe is what love is supposed to be like for us. This is what happens when two people who are meant to meet on this planet get together and work on making their relationship all it can be. I am sure everyone has heard me speak of "soul families." We have a pack of souls we go from life to life to life with. We meet them in various forms and we learn from each other. Sometimes we are enemies and sometimes we are lovers - usually we are something in between.

If we stop settling for "close enough" and actually wait for the right one, then we too could have this kind of wonderful experience. Science shows us that while one energy can be very powerful, if we combine it with another equal or more powerful energy, then it becomes exponentially more powerful.

When we are coupled with a person who at least for that time is just right for us, we tap into super powers, so to speak. Everything we do has more power behind it. Every word we speak has more power behind it. You are no longer just one soul. Your soul has combined with your love's soul, and you are that much MORE together.

Your feeling of rushing of energy is just that. Energy enters and leaves our bodies through our chakra points. When you are with your love, you are "wide open" and energy is flowing freely between you. It enters into your solar plexus and rushes all over your body to every chakra. As the chakras fill up with LOVE, they reenergize and you feel that RUSHING of energy through your clear, clean and smoothly running chakra system.

I must add that we get approximately five "The Ones" in each lifetime. We can choose the first, the last, all or none. Because we are human beings, sometimes we make stupid choices or mistakes and mess up relationships. Even relationships that feel this good and are this productive can be destroyed by human foolishness.

If you had one of these and blew it, do not despair, for you get another chance. If you have never had one of these and think they only happen to other people, do not despair. It WILL happen if you stop settling for less than the best.

I wish you all unconditional, boundless, complete and rushing LOVE.

*****

Astrea:

It seems that you two had a physical chemical reaction to one another at the beginning of your relationship, and this has deepened over time into love. Perhaps your souls recognize one another from several different past incarnations. I'm so happy for you, because finding someone with whom you're compatible on so many levels is very rare.

I'm not sure why this happens to certain people. One explanation is of course destiny, but I'm more inclined to believe that when people are making enlightened choices in all areas of their lives, the right people come along to share those lives with them.

When a person works on herself and learns to understand herself and her own spirituality, then others who are doing the same thing may feel a certain DRAW toward her. You must have been open to finding that person, and he must have been open to finding you. Even if you weren't looking for each other, the Universe would have ultimately drawn you two kindred spirits together one way or another.

Since you were both seeking enlightened action, you've taken it with each other. You've grown close to the person in your life who is the most like you in his approach to living. This is why you're so lonely when you're apart, and also why you can sense each other calling, thinking, and dreaming about being together.

The best part of this is now you have a PARTNER for your spiritual path. Searching alone, as many of us must do, is not as much fun as journeying with a companion. Together you have a lot more POWER for GOOD than you would have had if you were seeking answers on your own. I'm sure you won't agree on every single little thing, but you two seem to be as close as two humans can be.

The kindness and love the two of you have for one another spills out onto your friends and everyone you meet. This not only blesses you, but is a blessing to everyone around you. Even people who aren't spiritual themselves get a peaceful, loving feeling from seeing the two of you together. From the waitress at the diner to the checker at the grocery store, everyone who steps into the aura of your love receives that blessing. Spread it around as much you two possibly can!

While it's not impossible for you to have a spiritual connection like this with someone else, this is something precious and it should be nurtured throughout the rest of your lives. The reason your friends see that "light" around you is because it's really THERE. When people become as close as the two of you, their auras blend into one bright light when they are together. Your sensitive friends see this and respond to it with joy.