Circles…& your joy in being

A willingness to BE human and to open to receiving the love that is always here can – in the dream of life-apparently grow. A willingness to nurture your tender child aliveness, love the woundedness in the little boy or the little girl in you & equally nurture & express the extraordinary, shimmering, creative child spirit -that gateway to beingness – in you & live him/her too! As we resonate more finely, it appears that so the self-constructed closed doors open & nothing & everything simply IS. Being.

What we uncover in the circle is our shared humanity & as our heart opens in compassion for the sufferings of others so our heart opens more to our own wounding & the limits of embodiment, so that we do not deny pain & yet ultimately we come to wholly, lovingly embrace ourselves, all of our being….so tenderly that the separation & limitations dissolve. We do not construct an identity out of the stories and past hurts any longer. Nor do we need to blame anyone else for any pain that arises. There is freedom to choose responses in consciousness. So self-love ultimately brings the freedom of just being life itself just as it is.

We have all been wounded in this appearance. We have all known what it is like to feel less than whole. A wound or pain that we cannot bear to be with (that we feel we have to shed, or process away, or that we feel we shouldn’t have been given by whoever we think gave it to us) is much more dangerous to life and ‘others’ than a wound held tenderly, with consciousness, with gratitude even for its hidden gifts. And, with a choosing to be happy ANYWAY even when life seems impossible & your heart is breaking. Sounds simple….not necessarily easy! The support of good company helps, as does clear reflection and accountability.
Being friendly with your fear gives you courage to act & choose. Fully acknowledging your anger allows forgiveness. Welcoming sadness you open to surrender to life & its wisdom. Joy embraced is naturally generous. Finding compassion allows us to love & serve highest potential in being, in life or in ‘another’, who never was separate.

In this way we can learn to skilfully parent ourselves on our journey & find connection & intimacy along the way. We learn how safe it is to open, and to love to be full-bodied, to breathe, & to feel and to make mistakes. ‘Spirituality’ – terrible word, everything is holy wholeness – is otherwise a tool for the ego to avoid dealing with these wounds, a way to judge others and separate.

“Aloha is inner silence, empty of belief, story, judgement.

Sunshine sings it,  rain falls through it,

winds breathe it, trees are moved by it,  the earth rolls with it,

children grow with it, the ocean churns it, bodies may love it into beingness.

Aloha is Spirit beyond form, the soul of creation.

Aloha is silence, potential,

the ground of being which brings fulfilment and peace, It is passed on and celebrated in love.”

                                                                                           Joy Hicklin-Bailey

This is truly the way to materialize the spiritual, to integrate body and soul. Acknowledge the past and be more and more fully present, here, now, alive in this body, this man, this woman that we are. You  learn that your simplicity, your humanity, is enough, that fighting yourself is not required, that deep self-honesty is helpful. You learn how to treasure and care for those who enter your life and see the gifts.
Life is no longer frightening or lonely or tragic or a chore. Thus we grow, integrate, deepen our capacity for joy, openness, health, passion, fulfilment even on a very ordinary day! And our beings, our radiance & positivity, our deep sense of life’s safety, and exquisite beauty, is there in service for creation to use as is required.
A Secret Garden circle is intended and held as a very strong satsang field. It is so often a blessed oasis, a cosy refuge, a beautiful blossoming of life’s joy & creativity. And sometimes it may be scary in its unpredictability. And dark when old wounds or limits or judgements come strongly into awareness. So is life sometimes. The circle raises awareness & allows more opening & freedom &trust in ordinary life, more friendship with all that is in existence.
Sometimes you may need to move deeply into your body & your volcanic sexual energy (this increases the energy  available to you), sometimes you need to feel more deeply the feelings & sensations of your woundedness, sometimes you need an intellectual context to understand your human nature more deeply, sometimes the need is deep diving into the past to loosen its grip & the automatic responses you go into when threatened, sometimes you need to constellate an old family situation in order to resolve it inside us, sometimes you need to be held & nurtured, seen & heard in a way you have never received before.
Sometimes you may need different elements of your nature to be in freer dialogue with each other, sometimes need arises to pay attention to what works in life & achieve mastery over emotional wounds, sometimes see that the story & identity you have invested in isn’t really true at all in the realm beyond duality. Over & over the circle finds its way into love & truth. Circles show us, are a symbol and alive reminder of essential truth – that every human being matters, every man and every woman is equal in their utter uniqueness, everyone makes a crucial contribution to the whole, that we are nature (nature never has straight lines or squares), that all is one.

The openings & love that unfold for you in a circle can be awesome. These can be grounded in moment by moment choices in ordinary life. So that soul is looked after. It would appear that some things work to create lives that nourish soul & some things don’t work or serve soul. Unconditional life doesn’t mind either way but if you wish to live the creative joy of natural intelligence once conditioning dissolves, join us. The circle supports you during the sometimes arduous task of becoming light in aliveness.

We don’t learn about our light & innocence. We are Love & Light & innocence. That is why some of your true learning can feel painful, hard, feel impossible to the personality. Because destruction & death is part of the letting go of who we believe ourselves to be. Layer after layer of what we believe life should be like. These conditioned layers of protection are to be honoured…& SEEN for what they are so that you can let go into the spaciousness, wholeness & freedom that is your true nature & truly enjoy your natural beingness. This alchemical work is much easier with a guide & with friends.
So I thank & pay my respects to the circles which have been & will be, beautiful, strong, mature, passionate & generous as they are. How wonderful to sit with beings who are willing to live life this awake, this focused, this generous, this simple! What a deep pleasure it is to be with those who choose to gather in these timeless circles of being. What we sometimes speak of & explore is the core problem of human existence & its beautifully simple solution. The problem can underly, even determine, all the apparent complexity of our lives – that is, dislocation from essence, from aliveness, from life, from nature. To simply choose to do nothing about this is to move through life feeling separate, contracted & afraid. Such forgetting & self –ishness is the core cause of all dissatisfaction & unhappiness in this world. It does not have to be this way.
Deeper than our thoughts, our emotions, our struggles, the roles we play in life, is a ground of being that is love & truth, still & silent. Out of circle work, a resting in this universal solvent & the the healing & opening can arise so that we are freer, happier, more whole, less inclined to believe in stories & patterns & obligations & conditioned responses & rules. Then we live with authenticity, integrity & – most of the time, though not all the time- peace.
The unfolding life of a circle, its absolute coherence  & intentionality to support consciousness is an awesome mystery. What a gift to be able to be so friendly with all the life in ourselves & others that everything is simply an invitation into awareness, wholeness, joy, interconnection & presence ! I look forward to the next circle!
Aloha, Joy

The moon is most happy
When it is full.
And the sun always looks
Like a perfectly minted gold coin
That was just polished
And placed in flight
By God’s playful kiss.

And so many varieties of fruit
Hang plump and round
From branches that seem like a sculptor’s hands.

I see the beautiful curve of a pregnant belly
Shaped by a soul within,
And the Earth itself,
And the planets and the Spheres–

I have gotten the hint:
There is something about circles
The Beloved likes.

Hafiz, within the Circle of a Perfect One
There is an Infinite Community
Of Light.                                   ~ Hafiz

Realise the ease & joy of awakeness -being the man you are, the woman you are

Take a look at Joy’s posts