A call to "A gathering of Tribes".

Inside each one of us lies a dream, unfulfilled.

The image that comes to mind is a day I spent in Central Park at a "Be-In" in 1967. Does anyone remember Be-In's?
The counterculture that was born around the time of the San Francisco "Human Be-In" in 1967, spawned Be-In's all over the country that spring, and into "The Summer of Love", encouraging people to "question authority". Remember or heard that phrase before? This questioning of authority, or as we also like to say, "Who's they?", brought about various underground media outlets that showcased the voices of the new women's, civil and consumer right's movements, as well as music specific to those events.
This is the time of my life when I first became aware of my dreams. I was 15, my mother was still alive, and I was lying on the grass in Central Park, smelling the grass (I'll leave you to figure out which one), and FEELING the POWER of LOVE! The power of humanity, a resonating sea of consciousness, all dreaming the same dream. At the age of 15, I was in awe of the possibility of invoking a massive change to the "powers that be" simply by the sheer number of spirits gathered in one place for a cause(s).
The "Human Be-In" was produced and organized by artist Michael Bowen as a "gathering of tribes". The event was announced by the Haight-Ashbury's own psychedelic newspaper, the San Francisco Oracle in this way:

"A new concept of celebrations beneath the human underground must emerge, become conscious, and be shared, so a revolution can be formed with a renaissance of compassion, awareness, and love, and the revelation of unity for all mankind."

What an intention that was, and now we have come full circle as evidenced by the "Gathering of Tribes", in the overthrowing of their corrupt governments. But most importantly, we are now reaching a critical mass of people for whom compassion, awareness, love and the dream of unity consciousness has become a dream fulfilled; encouraged and supported by the Cyberspace community at large. My simple dream back in 1967, looking up at the sky was this.... "May I always remember to feel the immense love I feel at this moment". My dream has come to fruition on many levels. My quest inspires me to keep going and to not stop until I reach the consistent state of Love.

What dream do you have, and has it been fulfilled? If not, what will you do to promote your dream on earth?

Laying low within Gratutude...

There is so much going on inside, that when I AM in this space, words don't convey the experience, so I lay low. But if I had to express it, I would say that I'm integrating the harmonics of the feeling state of gratitude, and how that attracts a higher vibrational place from which to live my daily life.

Does that make sense, and if it does, how will you apply it into your daily life, as you see it?
Copyright 2012 by Mercedes Calderon. All rights reserved. This material may be copied and distributed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice and my blog themysticnextdoor.blogspot.com

Thirsting for the waters of the soul...

It's after 9pm on a rainy and somewhat cold Sunday in April 2012. I sit here picturing the dry, dusty soil ecstatically accepting the nourishment the rain provides; it's energy spreading like wildfire. "April showers, bring May flowers", as the saying goes. May is my birth month, and always reminds me that after the rain, all is made beautiful again.

In 1969 at age 17, with my mother recently passed, I was left to wander. To seek for myself the very reason for moving forward with a life I no longer had a direction for. I was just like the thirsty soil. I needed spiritual nourishment in order for my root systems to awaken to the energy of a new life. My soul searched through many Religious and spiritual paths, looking for it's resting place. There was none that rang the bell in my unawakened heart until 1985 when I met the living Master that I had prayed for nightly since 1971.

For one week I went with a friend to the Manhattan Center on 34th St in NYC for the "One Look, One Touch" nightly programs. Listening with my dry, parched soul to these nightly talks, I began to dread the ending of the visit. More and more time and energy was spent thinking about the last event and saying goodbye. What a predicament!

One day, the program was opened up for questions and answers. What luck! I would ask my question and have a real plan as to how to change my woes. It went something like this...

Question: I'm already dreading when the programs will be over. I'm going to miss coming here every night and how much I am going to miss you! What should I do, can you help me?

Response -paraphrased: (Looking out to the entire audience, as if looking for one person, but eyeing many) "Why do you brood? (long pause) Picture that you are at a large feast. The table is filled with delicious food. Many, beautiful delicacies are being offered. Are you going to stand there whining and crying out, "Oh, I'm so sad, there
is all this food and soon it will all be gone!!!! What should I do? Boo hoo...
(pauses)....No, you are going to look at the table and the delicious food, and you will pick out what you want to eat,, and when you are finished, you will walk away, satisfied and full."

Yes, her response brought my thirsty, wandering soul to a halt, and there it rests today. I now know how and when to provide nourishment when I'm feeling "dry", and I tend to my garden daily in one form or another. Of course, there have been many, many trying times during these years, but I can always tell when my soul thirsts for the water of life. I eat and drink from the feast table until I am full and beautiful once again, just like the grounds of my house will be in the morning after tonight's rain. I AM BLESSED!

"What do you do to tend to your soul's garden in times of drought?"

Copyright 2012 by Mercedes Calderon. All rights reserved. This material may be copied and distributed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice and my blog themysticnextdoor.blogspot.com

People change because life changes...

I read a post on Facebook this morning about how "It's sad when people you know become people you knew" (author unknown).
The truth is that in the scheme of an entire lifetime, we all live a few lives, and each one has a different set of people in it. As we outgrow one part of our lives, we also move toward the new experience and with that, a new set of people. Shakespeare said, "life is a stage and we are but players in it."

It's a comforting way to look at the comings and goings of the people in our lives. At different points in time, I've had clear indications of who would be coming into my life, while they were still on the periphery. It's an exciting moment when you can have that intuitive pull about someone, be able to acknowledge the pull, yet hang back and not act on it. Watching the play of your life proceed as the Witness of the mind allows the timing of the comings and goings to just "be" is a great attainment. I do acknowledge that the "goings" of certain people in our lives can be bittersweet and at times, filled with regret. Remember that for every ending there is a new beginning. Life does contain it's share of pathos and happily, joy!

Can you identify people and times in your life when you could see and feel this play while it was happening?

Copyright 2012 by Mercedes Calderon. All rights reserved. This material may be copied and distributed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice and my blog themysticnextdoor.blogspot.com

~We are all painters~

Once, in a meditation during an Intensive, I found myself walking to a great outdoor space. There, I could see the back of a gigantic canvas, the size of a wall in a Manhattan loft. Sensing that some type of activity was going on, I turned the corner out of great curiosity.
There, I found my meditation Master painting on the canvas in the most exquisite colors not seen here on earth. As I looked closer, I saw that it was my life she was painting! I got excited......
Suddenly the thought came to me that I would ask her how the painting would turn out . I asked without words, and the answer I received was also without words.

"These are the colors of your life. By your choices the painting is complete. Not even God knows what colors to choose."

God, in the form of my teacher kept on painting......

"What colors are you painting your life today?"

Copyright 2012 by Mercedes Calderon. All rights reserved. This material may be copied and distributed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice and my blog themysticnextdoor.blogspot.com

Blessings are always coming our way...

I love Native American wisdom because it always teaches us new perspectives on things we'd never think of questioning. Knowing that all sorts of blessings, not known nor anticipated, are always coming our way is so comforting! Being asked to give thanks in anticipation of these blessings is an interesting position to be in, since we are used to giving thanks for what we have already received.

Have you thanked your future Blessings today?

Copyright 2012 by Mercedes Calderon. All rights reserved. This material may be copied and distributed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice and my blog themysticnextdoor.blogspot.com

Gratitude = Blessings

" Giving thanks for Blessings increases Blessings". - Rumi  (The Masnavi)

This morning, on my way to work I was listening to an excerpt from a talk on Blessings.
My mind came to rest on how the practice of gratitude ignites powerful blessings in our day to day experience of life. I have a daily ritual that I do in my car, which helps me align with feelings of gratitude, leaving me with the powerful experience of being blessed. My responsibility then is one of practicing holding onto the Blessed feeling throughout the day. That's not to say I always do, but it's my offering to my higher Self, the One in All.

My ritual is simply... a prayer. It goes like this. "Good morning Lord, (followed by any and all the dieties I relate and pray to). Thank you for this day and everything in it, the good, the bad, the highs, the lows. Thank you for my daughter, granddaughter (names of all those I want blessings for that particular day), and I ask for your Grace for (anyone who is in special need of intercession). Bless my work, my clients and everyone with whom I may come in contact with throughout my day today. May my words be your words, spoken through me to those who have a need to hear a message from you. You are my love, my life and for that I am grateful and I love you Lord of all."

What is your practice for invoking Gratitude and Blessings?

Copyright 2012 by Mercedes Calderon. All rights reserved. This material may be copied and distributed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice and my blog themysticnextdoor.blogspot.com

What's in a name anyway?

Anyone who has ever undertaken creating a blog will understand my journey of the past month or so. From my perspective, a name for a blog is an organic creation. I thought I could somehow grow into one....wrong! You must decide that first. I did, and ended up changing it within the first 2 weeks. I then realized that The Mystic Next Door was how I would describe myself, and that others could  relate to being The Mystic Next Door in their own lives. For now, this is what the blog is called. Having noticed that the mystic next door seems to be a much used phrase, I will offer it up to the universe and let it go. What's in a name anyway? Which leads me to a small piece of an experience I had many years ago.....
.
After meeting my Spiritual Meditation teacher or Guru, I asked for a spiritual name and Blessing. Well, everyone else seemed to have one, so why shouldn't I? I asked, she looked at my name tag and responded,
"Mercedes........ and what makes you think that you don't have a spiritual name already"? In that moment, she had exposed the lack of purity of  intention, in my asking for a spiritual name for myself. It hadn't come from my heart. It had come from my list of "should haves". This experience made me look at my name in a whole new way. A name is attached to our "personality", but it is not who we are. A Spiritual name isn't any more or less spiritual than the one our parents give us. I don't profess to know why a Spiritual name is given to any given person, but I believe that the meaning of the name contains qualities to be imbibed by the mere repetition of the name over time. My name means merciful, and that has been a quality that I have been in the position to need and to give many, many times during my life so far.

What's the meaning of your name, and what are the qualities or virtues that you are being asked to learn?

Copyright 2012 by Mercedes Calderon. All rights reserved. This material may be copied and distributed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice and my blog themysticnextdoor.blogspot.com

From the time I was a child.....

One of the earliest memories I have of myself pondering things mystical, is as a child of about 5 years old, living on Avenue B in the East Village in New York City. I would be lying in my bed, supposedly tucked in for the night, peering into the darkness, repeating these words. "God always was, Is, and always will be". Man, that kept me busy night after night. My mind would become the starry night sky, and over it I would begin with, "God always was" and circle back...back...back into the past, going back in time, and not finding the end. I would then Stop, and be in the "Is" part of the saying. I would stay there a little while because that one I understood; God Is, yes! Then I would enter into "God always will be", and stay there tumbling with God into the never ending future. I couldn't reach into the ultimate end point. Needless to say, to a 5 year old mind this was quite a challenge. It wasn't until roughly 35 - 40 years later that this little exercise of my child self would come to mind with love and compassion, as I discovered the universe within myself.

Do you remember the first time you entertained the thought of God in your life? How old we're you, and how did that express for you? Please share your memories with us.

Copyright 2012 by Mercedes Calderon. All rights reserved. This material may be copied and distributed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice and my blog themysticnextdoor.blogspot.com




 

I know what I know......

This was my second post back in April, but I thought it would be beneficial to repost on this network. The Mystic Next Door has moved in. Now it's time to unpack and display what I own.
About me. I do think of myself as a "Mystic" in the sense that the more something contains mystery, the more I want to reveal and KNOW it's core. This trait is what's opened the door to some of the more transcendent experiences I've had. My faith is built on them.
I guess you could say, "I know what I know, because I KNOW." Share what you know through your own personal mystical experience by finishing the sentence, "I know what I know................." (If you share your experience, and would like to give me permission to have your story considered to be put into a book that I am writing,please let me know. Try to keep it simple and to the learning/lesson point of the share. Also please sign it the way you would want it to appear in the book if your share were chosen).
Happy sharing!
Copyright 2012 by Mercedes Calderon. All rights reserved. This material may be copied and distributed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice and my blog themysticnextdoor.blogspot.com

The Mystic Next Door moves in!

A  few months ago I decided to create The Mentoring Spirit on Facebook so I could connect with a community of  seekers with whom I could mutually share and discuss the day to day mystical life. 

What I learned from Facebook is that the experience I am looking for is more blog oriented, so that's how The Mystic Next Door came to be. I am also writing a book, which as of today contains one section of a chapter. I have given myself a deadline of one year from April 1st 2012 to have a completed manuscript. I expect to solicit personal experiences from people of all paths that relates to the mystical journey, and how these experiences build faith and provide encouragement on our journey through life.

I invite you to enter into a conversation meant to inspire and enhance our enthusiasm for the paths we've chosen for ourselves. As I say in my about me; I have no intention of arguing positions on belief systems. I believe all paths lead us to our highest destination, and if you resonate with this......I welcome you with Love.
Copyright 2012 by Mercedes Calderon. All rights reserved. This material may be copied and distributed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice and my blog themysticnextdoor.blogspot.come.  

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