The Ishaya Foundation Blog: July 2012

June 2012

Preparing the Way

The mind and the body are affected by the quality of our thoughts. Our habitual thinking is the strongest factor when considering the health of the mind and the body. It is common to think that we are subject to the physical and mental conditions, but the opposite is true. It is what we entertain in our minds that determines the conditions that we live in.

As we fine-tune the focus of the mind, and the body rises to a higher vibration, we gain a greater ability to appreciate life. As we clean the temple, or as we clear the debris from our minds by using the Ascension Attitudes, then a completely new vista of human experience unfolds; our destiny to be Divinely Human.

The preparation we are all in now is not to learn something we don't know, not to become something that we are not, but it is simply to be open to what already is, with humility and receptivity, in Praise, Gratitude and Love.

Nataraja Ishaya

In this Issue:

The Personal and the Universal Reality
Be the Change You Wish to See in the World
Committing to the Six-Month Retreat & Training Program
Our First Fundraiser
All You Need is Love
Furthering Your Practice

Our courses are taught
world-wide.....

If you would like to create
a course in your area
or translate a course
for us in your language
please click here.

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JUNE

2012

USA

Free Introductory Talk
Portland, OR
June 1
7 - 8 pm

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First Sphere
Portland, OR
June 1 - 3
Palo Alto, CA
June 15 - 17

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Advanced Meeting
Vancouver, WA
June 2
7 - 9 pm

St. James, MO
June 6
7 - 9 pm

St. Louis, MO
June 7
7 - 9 pm

Columbia, MO
June 13
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

St. James, MO
June 20
7 - 9 pm

St. Louis, MO
June 21
7 - 9 pm

St. James, MO
June 23
6 - 8 pm

Columbia, MO
June 27
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

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Advanced Retreat
St. James, MO
3 - 7 nights
June 15 - 22

St. James, MO
3 - 7 nights
June 23 - 30

CANADA

First Sphere
City TBD, BC
June 15 - 17

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Advanced Meeting
Langford, BC
June 3
7 - 9 pm

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Advanced Retreat
Sooke, BC
3 nights
June 8 - 11

FINLAND

Free Introductory Talk
Riihimäki
June 8
6:30 pm - 7:30 pm

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First Sphere
Riihimäki
June 15 - 17

Tampere
June 29 - July 1

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Advanced Meeting
Tampere
June 30
7 pm - 9 pm

GERMANY

First Sphere
Landshut & Bayern
June 8 - 10

Witzenhausen & Kassel
June 15 - 17

SWITZERLAND
First Sphere
Graenichen & AG
June 29 - July 1

HONG KONG

Free Introductory Talk
Mongkok, Kowloon
June 4
7 pm - 8 pm

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First Sphere
Mongkok, Kowloon
June 4 - 6

Mongkok, Kowloon
June 15 - 17

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Advanced Meeting
Mongkok, Kowloon
Wednesdays
7 pm - 9 pm

Wan Chai
June 28
7 pm - 9 pm

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Advanced All-Day
Mongkok, Kowloon
June 24
10 am - 5 pm

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Questions
about a course?

contact@theishayafoundation.org
1-888-474-2921
(Outside of U.S.A. call
1-573-699-4049)

See full course schedule here.

Whatever you wish to
achieve in your life,
commit to it. The Universe supports desires that
are moving in one direction. Vacillation creates weakness

and lack of results.

"One-pointed faith can

accomplish anything
here on earth."

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An Invitation
to
The Ishaya Foundation
Sponsors Appreciation
Barbeque

Saturday, June 23
1 - 5 pm
BBQ @ 5pm
Advanced Meeting
@ 6 - 8pm

Please RSVP
before June 10 by email
or call 888-474-2921

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The Personal and the Universal Reality

From the waking state of consciousness (described within the Ascension book by MSI) we look out of eyes that seem to relate to a world that is sometimes in conflict with the personal reality of beliefs and idealism. The idea: "If I were creator of the world and the universe, I would create things differently or at least make some changes," often comes into our thoughts when the personal beliefs conflict with one or more of the many individuals and their choices, in the world around us.

Obviously there are things that could change in our world to reflect a more harmonious and loving way of life, by eliminating the suffering of disease, starvation and political conflicts. What then can one person do to effect a change in our world?

Our thoughts have a profound effect on the world around us. But often our thoughts are not so well organized and focused to bring about the changes we desire in our own lives, let alone the changes that are necessary to bring harmony to a world in conflict with itself.

If we want to build a house to live in, we need to organize our thoughts toward what we want that will serve our lifestyle. It is not the house that makes a home for us, it is our lifestyle and our personality that influences what we fill our house with that makes it a home.

Our body is a home to our individual consciousness, or our soul if you will. There was thought given to creating it and the world that it lives in by your individual (soul) consciousness.

It was not your body that created the individual awareness that makes you unique in and amongst so many individuals in the world. It was your individual consciousness that built the house that it lives in, and that house is your body. Not only is your body an extension or reflection of that consciousness, but the world and all that is in it is an extension of your body. Your house is the body and the world in which you live. It was conceived as you experience it, by you and you alone.

If you remember some of the information that is given in the First Sphere weekend around thoughts, you heard that scientists say we think anywhere between 50,000 to 100,000 thoughts per day. Not all of these thoughts are organized thoughts that follow a pattern or direction that we are consciously aware of. Some of these thousands of thoughts rise into the awareness from the unconscious levels of the mind where they are stored as memories. Some of the memories are stress related, which conflict with our desires to create the world of our dreams on the surface level of thinking. We don't consciously desire to create conflict in the thoughts we have, but we give attention and meaning to thoughts that conflict with each other based on conflicting beliefs. An example would be a belief that good exists and the other that bad exists and conversely conflicts with the good. Our desire to manifest the good for us is influenced by the fear that the bad can affect our desire for good. Our beliefs that these two opposing forces are naturally working against each other is counterproductive and an illusion created by the ego. The reason I say it is an illusion is because relatively speaking what we judge to be bad is subjective, or a judgment of personal beliefs and ideals.

Not everyone agrees on what is good or bad in some cases. Some might see benefits arise from the contrast of experiences that are judged to be bad, yet the experience may inspire one to rise above the conditions that created the experience. If one is successful, the experience is subject to a change in judgment. Everything is subject to the conditions of judgment, and the point of view from the personal opinion, which is evolving and going to change. We could say that personal realities are sometimes in conflict due to varying perspectives in the objective point of view, where everyone sees what they will according to how they will choose to look at it.

This brings up an important part of the subjective and objective experience...Choice... and what it means in the comprehensive study of the world and our relationship to it.

Someone once coined the phrase "EGO... everything goes outward." This meaning that all attention is turned outward on the senses, to see the world as an entity in and of itself, with a power to conflict with the desires of the individual. This is what the Hindu traditionalists in Eastern Philosophy call The Illusion of the Waking State. Because we know from the experience of higher states of consciousness that we form our reality from our thoughts and beliefs, we know that there is merit to this idea of an illusion being created by the outward going senses.

The purpose of Ascension is to rise above the limitations created by the illusions of waking state beliefs that place the world in a position that seems either for us or against us, and as a power greater than our own thoughts. Jesus, during his ministry, taught from his own experience. As an Ishaya, he used to say "If you have the faith of a grain of a mustard seed, you could say "move mountain" and the mountain would move for you." He spoke to this reality as all Ishayas do, that the universe is at the command of Human consciousness. He didn't speak of the consciousness of the waking state ego, but the human presence and awareness that does not identify with the house consciousness built, but that which knows itself as the builder of the house.

The Universal consciousness:

Through the approach to the Ascendant, or the Absolute, we can acknowledge (in our familiarity with the Ascendant), what we sometimes call the Higher Self or Universal Self.

It is always working with all reflections of itself, in the many, many individual personalities in the world around us.

"Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up a stone, and you will find me there" - Gospel of Thomas. This statement is the acknowledgment of consciousness, aware of consciousness within all matter, or awareness of the Ascendant in all things. The acknowledgement and recognition of the Ascendant Presence within all that is.

If you look at the Human body with its millions of cells, all working together to make the body what it is, each cell has its own purpose and its own consciousness. Each cell is aware of itself, as well as the other cells, and the body consciousness of which it is a part of. At a level of our conscious awareness, we are similar to all of these cells in that we make up a much larger body within the Universe itself. Also, we are aware of all of the other individual consciousnesses of personality in the reflection of the ONE Ascendant Consciousness.

We take many directions in our creativity and interaction with all individual personalities at levels of awareness that are foreign to the waking state mind. It is at the level of the waking state that humans who identify with being human, separate from the ONE Ascendant Self (and its infinite reflections), can suffer in the idea that the world and those in it conflict with our personal beliefs and work against us. This is where Ascension is necessary to end suffering and separation.

By taking the mind inward to the Ascendant, the mind begins to saturate itself in an awareness that is not separate with the world, but rather the creator and participant of the evolving and expanding reflections of awareness and choice. Here we leave the conditioning of fear and separation of the ego behind. We do this to reacquaint ourselves with a friend, possibly familiar or unfamiliar and forgotten.

The more we do it the more we know about our friend, and the less of our awareness is left to illusions of fantasy and ignorance.

Immersing the mind in the "Universal Self" puts us on a pathway that is in alignment with all beings everywhere, and in all times and in all realities.

There is no limit to the human condition, unless you limit the human to conditions of temporary ideals and beliefs. It wasn't that long ago that humans believed the world was flat. It wasn't that long ago that doctors believed the body was primary and the mind secondary.

Illusions never changed the bigger reality, only the perceptions of reality. Thinking the world was flat didn't make it so, and in turn thinking we are victims to reality and our bodies does not make it a fact... but it can have an effect on the way we experienced our bodies and our world.

Taking the mind to a greater place than programs of illusion, naturally allows those illusions to fall away and to give us a boost into greater awareness of Self that is not in conflict with the world around us.

We can change our awareness of separated personal universes into the awareness of a Universe that is ONE. It takes very little time and a small commitment to take the time, to make the choices that will change our experience and our way of thinking. One only need to have a desire for change and it will begin. What kinds of change will depend on how organized your thoughts are, and at what level of conscious awareness you make your choices.

"If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it... A house divided against itself cannot stand." -Abraham Lincoln-

Mahadeva Ishaya

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Be the Change You Wish to See in the World

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Since learning to ascend 6 years ago, I have realized how vital it is to my expansion of consciousness to take time out from my daily life to go inward. During the first sphere in 2006 I heard much talk of 'going inward' and felt I had been doing that for years with my other practices. I had this part down, no problem, I go inward, didn't need to really pay attention to that phrase. I would ascend 3 times a day and that would be enough. Little did I know the power of longer periods of Ascension.

I attended my first week-long retreat 3 months after the First Sphere. It changed everything! No longer was my 3 times a day practice enough. My soul yearned for more. I made a commitment to have longer periods of Ascension during the day and to seek out more retreats. Devoting more time to Ascension has become a vital part of my daily practice.

I had been diagnosed with severe adult ADHD a couple of years before Ascension, so being able to ascend for 20 minutes several times a day was a major feat in itself, let alone Ascending for hours at a time. The amazing thing is the ADHD symptoms have slowly disappeared. My whole world has changed, all relationships have changed because I was 'going inward' in a way I had never experienced before. During that first retreat I could feel the significant power of the attitudes slowly, gracefully, lovingly bringing me back to my-Self. Nothing is more important than that.

I am committed to continuing this inward journey for the rest of my life. Every chance I have to Ascend helps the deep grooves of indoctrinated beliefs lessen their hold. Whether it's an advanced meeting, an all day Ascension, a 3-day retreat, or a week long Intensive, it's continuing to erase the grooves and helping me remember my true essence.

Does it take time? Does it take financial planning? Does it take commitment to arrange things at home? Of course it does; but the benefits far outweigh any of these inconveniences.

As Gandhi so eloquently put it, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." Ascension is helping me do this one attitude at a time.

Sue Schneider

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Committing to the Six-Month Retreat & Training Program
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Two of the 2012 trainees, Veronika and Ahimsa, shared some of their experiences of participating in the 6-month Advanced Ascension Retreat and Training program (previously known as Teacher Training) recently completed. This discussion took place in the car as they were being taken to the airport on their journey home.

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Veronika: Very quickly after I learned to Ascend I knew Ascension was something I really wanted to do. The more I Ascended the more clear it became. Last year in July I got the application for the Training. In the beginning my family challenged me quite a bit and on top of that I had many animals to take care of and I did not know what to do with them. But when I made the choice to go and paid the money many things changed. Suddenly the things I had seen as problems were solved and so many people offered their help. And even the ones that did not like me going stopped opposing me. It was a miracle really. My choice made all the difference. That was clear to me. The commitment made all the difference for me. When I stopped worrying and was not split about going, things were easier. In that I realized that everything in my life is created from me.

Ahimsa: It took me a whole year after I learned to Ascend to commit to my desire to come, although I knew right in the First Sphere weekend I wanted to go. First I thought there would be difficulties to make it happen, but I was really surprised how little resistance came from the people close to me or my life circumstances. My greatest challenge was my own thoughts in my own head. I just knew I needed to go although I did not really know much about the Training itself.

Veronika: After the Training I experience more stillness and freedom inside of me. Now there is much less thinking... I used to have at least 2 million thoughts running through... heh. The connection between all things and unity has become clearer to me. My physical body has been through deep healing and changes in these last six months.

Ahimsa: I am very grateful for all the teachers with their support and help that I received throughout the Training. In fact, already before I went to US that was the case. Lot of my challenges were eased because of that support. For example, the lack of English could have been a problem, but I got help and then I trusted that I will get what I need anyway. I don't think my English speaking skills improved very much, but my goal was first and foremost something other than learning the language. I just let the things flow as they did.

Veronika: I felt that commitment helped me throughout the course. I just decided to stay no matter what came up from the inside. The more that I took the challenge to face myself the clearer and deeper my experiences became. When the stress was gone the stillness grew stronger inside of me.

Ahimsa: Sometimes I felt challenged with the stresses as they released, but I would do it all over again because I know now how beneficial it is. I feel great after it is all done. My physical body has also been through a lot of positive changes.

I really want to teach when I go back to Finland and I wish all the people would know about Ascension and the possibilities it opens. This really enlivens me and I do feel like I am just at the beginning of this.

Veronika: If you are thinking of coming to the Training my advice is to just make the commitment. Listen to your own voice in your heart and don't give up!

Ahimsa: My message to those that are considering the Training is just to be clear what you really want and then act on that. With commitment everything manifests.

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The 6-month Advanced Ascension Retreat and Training program is designed for anyone that simply desires to become more conscious in knowing the Ascendant and living life more fully from That. This Program also offers the opportunity and requirements to become a qualified teacher of Ascension. During such a time of inward study and focus, one may recognize their desire to dedicate their personal life to the Ishaya path and choose to become a vowed Ishaya Novitiate for the experience of a year. In time, some continue further along their vowed path, some do not. This is not required in order to become a teacher of Ascension. Many have thought it to be so, because so many do choose to become Novitiates of the Ishaya Order.

The path of Enlightenment is navigated by individual choice. Each and every person makes choices for themselves and how they wish to traverse through life. Ascension brings one to a more intimate and conscious connection with the power of Choice. When one returns to a constant awareness of the Ascendant and Conscious Self, life truly... begins to transform. This Program offers the option to take as little or as much of this Teaching as you wish into your life.

If you would like more information or to receive an application for the Program, call us at 888-474-2921 or email aart@theishayafoundation.org.

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Our First Fundraiser

The Foundation is sponsoring a fun-filled evening on Saturday, June 30th, in Rolla, Missouri. All the proceeds will be used to support our Ascension outreach programs. There will be a live band for Contra Dancing, food and fun, plus raffles throughout the evening for items donated by businesses and individuals.

Since the raffle winners need not be present, you may participate from wherever you are by viewing the items and buying raffle tickets from our Facebook page at facebook.com/TheIshayaFoundation. If you would like to donate something for the raffle, we will be accepting items up until the day of the event; or you may also make a monetary donation. Please call the office at 888-474-2921 or email contact@theishayafoundation.org.

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All You Need is Love
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It's easy.

There's nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time - It's easy.

All you need is love.

There's nothing you can know that isn't known.
Nothing you can see that isn't shown.
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.
It's easy.

~~ The Beatles ~~

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Our Websites

The Ishaya Foundation
www.theishayafoundation.org

Hong Kong website
www.theishayafoundation.asia

European website
www.theishayafoundation.eu

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This is the 65th edition of the Ishaya Foundation newsletter.
If you wish to receive this Newsletter in your email, please subscribe here.
To contact us, please email contact@theishayafoundation.org or call 1-888-474-2921.

Past Issues:
2012		2011
2010		2009
2008		2007
2006		2005

The Ishaya Foundation Blog

Preparing the Way (June 2012)

2005 Newsletter Archives

2006 Newsletter Archives

2007 Newsletter Archives

2008 Newsletter Archives

2012 Newsletter Archives

2009 Newsletter Archives

2010 Newsletter Archives

2011 Newsletter Archives