On the Path of Heart:
by Emma Bragdon, Ph.D.
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 Original Photo by Rick English |
From that time I have sought to develop both wisdom and compassion. In 1990, after marriage, raising a son, earning a Ph.D. in psychology and acquiring some undefined degree in the college of hard knocks, I began teaching the Avatar Course. Why would a Buddhist take Avatar much less teach it?
It works. It's a simple, practical way to expand consciousness and acquire tools to manage life, diminish suffering, even contribute to the enlightenment of civilization. Participants move ahead quickly into new ways of perceiving themselves and their world. It's safe. There are easy ways to integrate this new consciousness, to bring it home after the training is over. The course is fun for both participants and facilitators. Participants laugh a lot during the processes. Facilitators, too. Side-splitting laughter. Isn't it all about lightening up, anyway?
Meditation
Technically speaking, the Avatar course builds on what Buddhists have known for 2,500 years. Namely, it is our compelling infatuation with mental concepts - labels, categories, evaluations, judgements, beliefs - which is the cause of human suffering. When we detach ourselves from the noisy torrent of these concepts and imbibe the simple experience of life we experience bliss. This bliss not only releases us from suffering but puts us in contact with the heart of compassion, creativity and gratitude for life. We just need to find a way to simply be with life itself.Buddhists practice forms of meditation to go beyond identification with "monkey mind," the seemingly incessant internal chatter. The Avatar course also teaches a form of meditation to the same end. Although they both work, I have seen people reach a still mind in 3 days on the Avatar Course. This is unbelievable to students of Zen who believe that achieving a still mind has to take years or lifetimes. That it's a serious affair. The Avatar Course doesn't come from that tradition.
Synthesis of East and West
The Avatar Course is a brilliant synthesis of modern Western psychology and Buddhist philosophy. Following the meditation section at the beginning of the course, the next experiential exercises are designed for psychological clearing and re-evaluation of personal needs and goals. These exercises come at a time in the course when they can be most well used.After the student has achieved a still mind - which brings ease, bliss, and deep peace - there is much less resistence to having new perceptions of the self, alone or in the company of others. Now, each person is gently led into experiencing him/herself as "Source", at one with the unified field of consciousness. Any psychological stuff (beliefs or feelings) that has kept the student from experiencing Source is worked with. Each student goes deeply into Source consciousness, ultimately realizing that he or she is Source: Source of the cosmic dance, Source of the sacred dance of opposites, Source experiencing and appreciating the world.
There are epiphanies. Shadows that once seemed dark and forbidding, keeping one separate from authentic power, are perceived as masks, entertainment devices, on the face of Source. Participants reclaim the projections they have had on both gurus and tyrants. A new sense of self is accessible, one that brings peace, empowerment, enthusiasm for life and delight. And, the door is now open for participants to anchor this more and more deeply within themselves. Thus, the highest aim of both psychology and Buddhism is reached.
No "isms" or "ogys"
Not only does this training facilitate reaching these high goals but no one in the organization behind the Avatar course, "Star's Edge International", demands anything other than the upfront fee for the training. After the course there are no membership dues, expectations in terms of expressions of loyalty, adherence to certain prescribed behaviors or belief systems (isms or ogys), or attendence at group rituals. Even though the originator of the Avatar Course, Harry Palmer, is alive and well, no one at Star's Edge steps forth as guru or head priest. Instead, there is a network of shared trust: that Avatar students and facilitators are reclaiming and integrating Source consciousness at the pace best for them. (Just like everybody else in the world who has not taken Avatar but is doing something else.) As a result, my sense of "membership" flows out to the planet and all creation - not limited by my identity with any church or philosophic group. I am no longer Buddhist or Avatar.This sense of not being identified with any thing, albeit an organization, nation, or even a sense of special self-identity, is what the Buddhists maintain as their ideal. You have probably heard the phrase, "If you meet the Buddha on the path, kill him!" It means, the one who identifies him/herself as the Buddha is not the Buddha for the true Buddha is not limited by any identity. The Avatar exercises help me come closer to the essense of this ideal.
The Heart of It
The Avatar materials have also helped me to go even deeper into the Buddhist concept that each of us is meaningfully connected to all life. The Avatar meditation helps me feel at one with creation and reveals profound resources of compassion for myself and for all sentient beings. When I feel in conflict or judgemental or separated from the world I use particular Avatar excercises to open up so I am no longer lost in the feeling of being separate from what is disturbing me. (From the point of view of Source, I contain everything.) These exercises go to the heart of personal prejudice and judgement. They are powerful and effective. As a result of using the exercises I have become more psychologically flexible and personally responsible. Increasingly I reach out ot the world out of appreciation for all points of view.I have not lost my discrimination. I have gained my heart, and I choose to follow this path of heart. I am intuitively drawn to some things and not others. Discrimination is now no longer a question of who is "right" and who is "wrong". It's not a head trip. Discrimination comes more from the heart: feeling drawn to certain experiences and not others.
As a Buddhist one believes that everything has Buddha nature. This suggests that every human through the ages has been longing for full aliveness in the present moment, a path to peaceful coexistence, and intimate connection to Source. The Avatar course answers this longing without establishing a social institution, or a position of being more "right" - which all too often creates a basis for conflict.
A Sane Life
Finally, I deliver Avatar because it is a path to personal growth and compassionate service simultaneously. It is a sane life. Every course I teach is a learning for me. Each new student brings new challenges. Opportunities to open more and expand myself. These are gifts of learning. And, every course I teach is an offerring to those who want to reestablish themselves in a greater consciousness and connectedness to all that is. It's appropriate for neophytes beginning their paths and graduates of all psycho-spiritual courses who are smoothing rough edges. For the duration of the course I create and maintain a space in which students can expand as much as they choose - finding a path out of their suffering into joy. I treasure the opportunity to share Avatar.Emma Bragdon, Ph.D. has been facilitating Avatar ® internationally since 1990.
She is the author of two books about opening gently to spiritual evolution. The Call of Spiritual Emergency: From Personal Crisis to Personal Transformation was published by Harper San Francisco in 1990. A Sourcebook for Helping People with Spiritual Problems was published in 1994. She also has a special collection of articles available for those who would like more information about Avatar ®.She can be contacted through her home office in Vermont: 1-800788-4084 or by email: ebragdon@aol.com
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