The Way of Irish Blessings - The practice of Anam cara (Soul Friendship) as a Way of Life

In order to invite the above Blessing to become a heart felt sense of wonder there is the requirement to look at how we approach the appreciation of such writing. To invite yourself into the beauty of who you are requires that you be grounded. This is the practice that the ego hates. It is the practice of humility. There is what can be termed pseudo humility and real humility. The word humility comes from the word 'humus' which means 'close to the earth.' It means that one grounds oneself in the real.

You are close to real humility when you feel gratitude for what is being given to you in the moment. Humility is the acknowledgement that everything in your life is being given to you. Its focus is not on what is lacking in the life of 'little me' but on the thankfulness for what has already been given and is being given moment to moment. It is thankfulness from the knowing that one is a co-creator of this forever becoming that we call the Universe.

When we come down to it how often do you really say, "Thank You,” for all that is given us? For example how often do you say thank you for the food you eat, the bed you lie in, the shelter and warmth of your home, the beauty of a sunset, the play of animal or child. The list could go on and on. I am so grateful for my electric tooth-brush. I find it just the most amazing instrument. To think that his was once an idea in someone's head and now it is fully manifested in form.

This universe births you in Love in each and every moment. Without the breath, which is Spirit, being given you in each moment the form you call the body would cease to be. Without the sun you would cease to be. Without the renewal of each cell in your body that is going on moment to moment cleansing and renewing your body you would not function.

Let me introduce you to a practice that will begin to open up your sense of feeling good.

It will also help you deal with times when life is less than you desire it to be. It is the daily practice of listing one thing each day that you are truly thankful for. Sit silently to begin with and ask your mind to show you one thing, anything that you can feel gratitude for. This does not have to be a great thing. It is for each of us to simply begin where we are. At the end of the month take this list and read it out loud or silently to yourself. This practice of thankfulness might at the beginning seem rather dry and somewhat forced.

This is because the heart that loves to express thanks has been armoured. Usually this is because it has been hurt in the past in some little or large way. Still, as with any practice that you want to gain fluency in you have to commit to the practice. Otherwise no progression will be made. If you do this then you will find that thankfulness becomes a habit. You begin to realise how much is truly given to you without your needing to ask. This is the beginning of real humility. It is the journey into thankfulness to the One Source of All Creation. This journey will take you into an overflowing and outpouring of gratitude for the experience of the One Life that is your birthright and from which you can never be parted.

Pseudo humility is when you feel inferior, lacking, pleading and doubt filled. All these are aspects of the separate self that is divided against itself. Within pseudo humility there is felt a sense of guilt. The sense of 'little me' is engaged in self-pity. You can see this in those who feel attached to the idea of being a miserable sinner.

Real humility will have you prostrating on the ground or throwing your arms in the air in thankfulness. Pseudo humility will have you prostrating yourself on the ground looking for repentance or beating your breast in a display of self-righteous demanding. Let me say that no one is to be judged for such a display. Such action is a call for Love and must be recognised as such.

Only you are never going to enjoy a feeling sense of wonder, the state and station of being at One, by feeling guilty. To feel guilt is to be divided against yourself and the state and station of wonder cannot be entered via a mind divided against itself. The Blessed sense of the wondrous Self is given different names by different religious traditions. In Buddhism it is termed Nirvana and in Islamic terms the state and station of being whole is termed Paradise. In Christian terms it is call Heaven.

The requirement to enter such states and stations is to forgive. This means forgiving yourself for all that you have done and haven't done. The ultimate forgiveness is the forgiveness of the false self. This is the idea that you have ever left the state of being At One in the first place.

If you could ever lose this state of oneness then it would not be real. Be thankful that it is not yours to lose. It is held within eternity for you to reclaim the knowing of. This is what it means to be a realised being. It is one who has awakened to their true nature.

When you've had enough of trying to do your life in time then you may turn within to the original Cause that created you in Love and which nothing in this world of form can substitute for. When you have the veil that separates you from this birthright lifted for one instant then you will be humbled indeed. You will come down to earth.

You will be grounded as never before. You will know that whatever you do or do not do to self improve yourself you could never ever imagine that you as 'little me' could ever deserve to partake in this eternal creation. This will humble you for certain. The life of 'little me' identified with a body in time and space will be seen for the prison it really is. This is the beginning of real humility when you really know the difference between that which is real and eternal and that, which is unreal and temporal.

So the key to practicing real humility is indirect. It begins with a daily practice of saying Thank You. As stated before you may not feel very thankful to begin with. This is because your focus is often not in the present. It is because your thankfulness is always qualified and conditional. In that sense it is less real than the practice you are being invited to engage with.

When you look at our culture via television, newspapers and magazines most of it is designed to make you feel that what you have and who you are is not enough. The writer of this ezine invites you into the knowing of your true Self. Be assured that one glimpse beyond this prison veil of separateness will have you on your knees kissing the ground. You will have learned to be close to the earth. This is one of the greatest growth mediums. You will grow in ways you never imagined but your feet will be on solid ground.

You will walk on this earth in beauty spreading the perfume of the beyond. You will not claim such beauty as your own because it is not something that can be owed. It is simply you sharing the radiance that you are as one with your Creator.

To be this grounded, to feel humble in this grounding means to give up your sense of separateness in time and space. This requires a willingness to die in a spiritual sense before you die in the physical sense. This is what Jesus means when he said that those who would save the life of 'little me' would lose the knowing of their real life. Jesus is in effect saying, “Get real and know the life that is forever.

This knowing of forever is the invitation afforded in this Blessing for YOU ezine. This writer knows that to offer you anything less than eternity is to offer you less than that which will end suffering in this world of form.

So the Way and Practice of Irish Blessings is a Way of humility. It is an indirect way via thanks giving. Humility is demonstrated by the word May that begins many Irish Blessings. This word May is an invitation and invocation to the One Source of All Creation from which all true Blessings arise. All Blessings are invitations, no matter how written, into the knowing that you and this Source of All Creation are not separate. The Blessing invites you to be the lover of all that is.

In next weeks ezine Blessings for YOU we begin to look at the road that will take you into wonder and that rises up as you move along it..

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If you haven`t already downloaded your copy of our FREE ebook entitled New Irish Blessings for Life - 12 Blessings for the Journey Home then please do so by double clicking on the link below. There you will be given instructions on how to download this ebook.

There are 12 new Irish Blessings designed to mirror the journey through life from beginning to end. This Ebook is in three parts. It begins with blessings approiate for a new born, a young child and a young person. The second part deals with career, home and relationship. The final part deals with growing old and preparing for entry into the dimension beyond Time.

This FREE Ebook will be available for you to give away to as many people as you would like. The idea is that together we start a chain of Blessings that takes us higher and higher and then road really does rise up before us. In this way you really can begin to bring Heaven to Earth.

The Anamcara Experience

Website and Course

Shortly, the writer will be launching his new website called The Anam Cara Experience. It is subtitled “Ready to Radiate.” This is an invitation to radiate the beauty that is flowing within you. This writer is also launching a new course that will invite you into the experience of this beauty.

He will not be teaching you what you do not already know. He will be focusing on education in its real sense. Education means, to bring out. He will be a constant invitation to bring out the direct knowing of who you are. He will be the invitation that invites you to the wisdom teaching that says, “To your own self be true.”

In this Soul Friendship course entitled Ready to Radiate you will be introduced to the Anam Cara Training.

This is a training that will not fill you up with more information but will invoke the flowering of your heart. It is a training that will allow you to feel the paradox of being more by knowing less. These are practices and techniques that the writer uses in his everyday life and is intent on sharing with as many people as are interested.

This writer takes you through practices that you can adopt within your daily life that will invite you again into wonder. Not only that but you can build on these practices and become a deeper and deeper friend of your Soul and to the Souls of others. This paradoxically speaking is the one no thing that will give you all you could ever imagine and more.

This course will train you in entering the heart. These practices engage you not on a cerebral level but on a heart level. These practices will open up your mind, your body and your spirit. They include the use of poetry, songs, fairy tales, movies, people, blessings, prayers, practices and places to invite into you that which is sacred.

That which is sacred in you is whole and holy. You do not have to do anything except learn to trust this wholeness in deeper and deeper ways. This is the invitation to let go and relax and allow the intelligence that you are to dance the dance it longs to express uniquely through you.

Soul friendship involves a different kind of language. It is not a language that you have been taught at school, college or University. In fact the teaching you will have received in such places will, in all likelihood, close the door on the heart and focus you in your head. The language of soul is a Universal language.

Universities originally grew out of wisdom schools who taught this language of the Soul. Universities today, however, do not teach wisdom but teach facts about things. Wisdom is not something that you learn. It is who you are when you are prepared to allow the Timeless to flower within you.

The primary language that you engage with in learning to be a Soul Friend is the language of mystical poetry. This is not simply rhyming verse but contains hidden invitations into the Timeless. There are are also many new songs and old songs that also have this hidden invitation. On this course called The Anam car Experience - Ready to Radiate the writer takes such poems and modern day songs and unpacks their deeper meaning. This is their invitation to Soul Friendship that is contained in them.

When you listen to the song or read such a mystical poem it is more than just the words and even the feelings that they invoke. It goes beyond that to remind you of your true home in the Timeless. This is an invitation to an experience that will take you way beyond anything your logical mind can ever comprehend. It takes you into the deep sense of security in knowing you belong to that which is creating forever in Love.

The writer will invite you into the real spirit of song, the real spirit of storytelling, the real spirit of poetry and the many powerful practices that impact your day to day living experience in a postive and uplifting way. In addition you can meet with like-minded people who are similarly engaged in this process. It is the writer’s intention that we as a group raise the vibratory level of the collective soul so that everyone can be invited to bring beauty into the world where she is so much needed.

It will be available at the above website Anam cara Experience which is presently being set up. It is intended that this course be available with various bonuses for the cost of €19.97.

It is also intended to that anyone who wants to finish such training at any time can have a full refund of any monies that they have paid without any questions being asked. So in this way there is absolutely no risk involved expect the risk that you lose a opportunity for the real life. Until that time I will keep you posted.

and you will be notified once this course is completed (around end of August 2008).

This course is intended to give you access to your birthright as a being of unlimited creative potential. It is a course intended to ground you deeply in your heart and uses practices and techiques specifically intended to promote this as a way of living your day to day life. This is the way of wonder.

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Website and Course