I met Dianne MacDougall Quan at the City of Calgary Arts & Culture Department when I was involved with the This is My City — an city-inspired arts initiative that connected community artists with those with the experience of homelessness. She was passionate. Committed. Dedicated to connecting people and ideas to create beauty in our city.

Dianne wasn’t directly in the project itself so we didn’t spend much time chatting and working together. And then, we met up at Peace Calgary and I was blessed with the opportunity to get to know her better and to be inspired by her passion, and commitment to creating beauty all around.

Today, Dianne creates beauty through sharing her words of what makes a difference in her world through the gift of meditation.

Little Death of Persona

By Dianne MacDougall Quan

Tonight I heard an interesting term from Dal – my meditation guide: the so called ‘LITTLE DEATH’ of ego.

Dal discussed how continued practice of meditation can cause  the ‘little death’ of persona, also called ego or  the adapted self.

Let me begin my explaining how our group practices meditation. When our circle meditates with Dal, we quiet down the emotional, mental and physical states (or ‘static’)  through a practice called “The Four Step”.

Essentially the Four Step Process is a grounding.

– It  first begins with the breath and developing a cadence.

– Following this, we are asked to visualize  a  “gathering up” of our  mental, emotional and physical energy and sending them down through our feet….  deep into the earth. This is an invitation for soul to shine through.

– For the third step, we are asked to   imagine a  magnet,  six inches above the crown chakra. We are then told to ‘pull up’ on this magnet, which aligns the energy channels in the body.

– The final step is to simply  to go to our  HEARTS – and just BE THERE in the heart chakra.

Here’s the thing: Especially for new practitioners, ego is going to work REALLY hard to take control of this process and make sure that soul doesn’t gain ground. At first, practitioners might squirm around, fight the feeling of relaxation, ask ‘what good this could possibly do”.

But with practice, one gains ground. One GOES to the quiet. Dal guides us in many ways once we begin to access the quiet and let soul shine through. We don’t have to DO anything, and if EGO keeps ‘butting in”‘ – well – “just go back to the grounding process”,  we’re reminded.

I’ve learned alot about EGO, and life – with our meditation circle. In life, we often think we have to DO SOMETHING, CHANGE SOMETHING, CONTROL SOMETHING, STRIVE FOR SOMETHING .But sometimes, we can choose to do nothing without beating ourselves up about it.

Here is something else that has happened to myself and group: WE ARE ALL CONNECTED. WE ARE ESSENTIALLY ‘ONE’….unified by the pure energy of love. Once we get  out of ego, there’s a ‘force’ – a repeating cycle – in our meditation circle. It defies words.  It brings tears. It brings a closeness that can’t be described. It is: pure and simple LOVE.

There’s a shift going on… as we approach Dec 2012…. the end of the Mayan calendar and descent from the Piscean age while ascending into the Aquarius age. The new age calls for moving from AWARENESS to ACTION: to using our god – given gifts – our spiritual archetype (we all have one) to be in service for a better self / family / community and world.

The ego likes to keep us prisoner sometimes by reinforcing old behaviors and beliefs. BUT:  once we begin to challenge these beliefs through continued access to spirit, the whole game changes — and the world is made different.

Little by little, the ego goes through a gradual death,and we are transformed by love, gratitude, and infinite capacity.

***************************************

Thank you Dianne!

and please… don’t forget to vote! Your vote makes a difference!

http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf13435