Upon Awakening

a new series of conversations, meditations, and workshops

I am starting a new podcast! It will be called Upon Awakening with Avalon Kalin. For some time I’ve wanted to share affirmations, meditations, ideas, songs, thoughts, feelings and conversations I have around inner and collective awakening. We are yogis, sufis, mystics, healers, astrologers, practicioners of medicine and mindfulness. I deeply want to share the experience of being a whole person in this multi-crisis world of ours. There is a great awakening happening in everyone around me W are awakening to our true nature. We are seeing and processing the failing of the great institutions of our time. I feel a deep need to focus on the sacred aspect of life now. I hope to continue to share my years of teaching and making art. But there is something happening I cannot ignore.

I see a war against humanity, an extension of collective trauma of seperation. I have studied social alienation and psycholgy for years and it all comes down to worldview and the experience of the self in the world. Because we are experiencing the failure of our collective worldview which has been based on separation for millenia, we need to center a new and anciet story of being in connection and with nature and within ourselves. I see a real need to put energy into sharing my knowledge and connecting with the knowledge of those whose hearts are openning and whose wisdom supports life. I know wonderful people who bring me and the collective their wisdom and vibrancy in this, and I want to connect with more.

YOU CHANGE THE WORLD WITH YOUR HEART

These are the words my eldest daughter wrote above a picture of the world in the shape of a heart. If your mind tells you this is not true, I invite you to feel in your heart if it is so. My heart tells me it is so. It is time to share the wisdom that we are all aspect of creation and creators our world. It is time to share the wisdom that to be an adult is to know and to share that all life is sacred. It is time to carry the wisdom of all people that there is a more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.

YOU ARE THE CREATOR OF YOUR LIFE

Each day we are given a gift of life, and each day we may remember or forget our true nature. We are the creation. We aren’t just in an interconnected web of life, we are the interconnected web of life! The illusion that we are seperate is part of this experience of being human. We don’t have to lose our minds to have fun and know who we are. We simply have to let our minds do their jobs of creating ides about things and presencing our uniqueness. When we are able to be present and listne to more than our minds. When we are able to get tastes of unity, samadhi, bliss, truth, freedom – then we are able to rise and descend to the depths of our being and experience directly our boundlessness and the sacred quality of all life. From this place of knowing we are able to be of service to the life within us and around us. As cocreators of this day, this job, this moment we are kind and diligent friends, partners, and cowokers. As cocreators of this world, we accept and love others without condition. We effectively change the world around us.

HAVE YOU YOU?

But this knowing is not an ideology or a set of steps. It is based in the truth that comes from being without attachment, a state we must continue to invite in and practice every day. Many of us are experiencing joyless work, depression, anxiety, or illness. Most of us struggle with some kind of addiction or inner dislocation that causees disonance in our lives. I have studied addiction recovery for over ten years and don’t need a degree to tell you what it is all about. The ancient axiom, “Know They Self” carries great wisdom. To be a sane and sober mature adult involves honesty, inventory, connection to something greater than your own needs, and a sense of service to life beyond ones “self”.

JOY IS SEXY, ART IS TANTRA

If this sort of thing insterests you, it may be because you know the bliss of spiritual freedom is not bypassing life, but deeply enjoying it. No mud, no lotus. The true path is where you already are. To go through the difficult reality of what, when, how, who and where you are is to experience the fullness of life. We feel pain, fear, grief, and suffer because life is that important to us. When we forget, we are here for each other, to remind each other what we have forgot: that life is meant to be lived. We are here to be all of it. Because we are all of it. But, we can practice giving ourselves the sweetest thing of all, the greatest joy of all, the deepest knowing of all. We can practice asking the divine in. We can be without illusion in these little doses we call yoga, presencing, bhakti, counseling, service, song, art, and dance.

I can’t wait to meet you here in this new space I am co-creating with you. Please subscribe here, blessings and happy trails.