The Dance of Namaste by Georgette Cressend
I know Georgette will forgive me, so let me get to the almost-freebie-thing straightaway. The first 24 of you to buy a copy of The Book of Undoing in either paperback, or Kindle, through the US Amazon.com, and to forward your Amazon confirmation to [email protected], will be invited to attend a free, one hour, live Clarity Session with me at 3:00 pm EDT on Thursday, November 6. (This session is now closed.)
I know that many of you already have that book, but if so, be a sport and give one away to somebody, or save it for the one you’ll meet who needs it, or donate it. A new copy is, in effect, the price of admission to the session, and you’ll be making a felt difference in another way, too, which I’ll tell you about below. If you qualify but miss the free session, then you miss the session; no make-ups, no exceptions.
The good news is that ultimately everyone will win, because I’ll be recording the session and immediately putting it up on my YouTube channel. If you send me your Amazon receipt as your application for the Clarity Session, that act will constitute your permission for Awakening Clarity Now, LLC to air the recording with you in it. I’ll reply to your receipt when I get it so that you know you’re “in,” and then I’ll send details out to all participants at the same time–don’t expect individual replies. I do hope everyone will be a good sport about this. If so, and all goes as I expect, then this will be the first in a series.
This should be a lot of fun. You’ll be able to ask the questions that are important to you at that moment. This is the wonderful thing about live events. This will not be my first Zoom meeting, but it will be my first big one, so I apply for your patience ahead of time.
One of the reasons I want to drive sales for The Book of Undoing right now is that I woke up to an email yesterday morning from a major Spanish language publisher with worldwide reach, expressing their interest in publishing The Book of Undoing in Spanish. They distribute titles by Adyashanti, Eckhart Tolle, and Byron Katie, so it would be wonderful company to find myself in–not to mention that it opens the door to 350 million new people. I’ve had numerous requests for a Spanish translation, so this will be a real blessing–if they publish it. This title has been a nondual bestseller (which is something of an oxymoron) for the past 19 months, and it’s still selling quite briskly.
The Kindle edition of The Book of Undoing has been the biggest sales driver. It was on Amazon’s Top Ten for Eastern Philosophy for ten months straight, and it still hits that list quite regularly. I’d love to give both it and the paperback a bit of a goose, push it further on up the list while it’s being considered for foreign publication. They can’t hang me for trying. So give TBU a boost, and I look forward to talking to you live!
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It’s great to be able to offer a far-reaching forum like Awakening Clarity Now as a way for some of my clients-students-friends-whatevers to share their journey. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every guest writer’s column. There will be more. Everyone sees things just a little bit differently, through their own coloration and conditioning. What I love about The Living Method is that it meets people right where they are. Everyone is allowed to “get this thing” the way they need to get it. No one owes me any allegiance. The ultimate ideal is not to tie you to me, but to set you free on your own.
Rather than asking you to switch from your path to my path—whatever that is–I show you how to do your path more deeply and effectively. Awake means awake, and Awakeness is our common language and our common bond. I’ve worked with people from all the familiar traditions–Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism–as well as lots of people from A Course in Miracles (I studied ACIM for two years myself), as well as those of you from the No-path tradition, and frankly it doesn’t seem to matter. Regardless of your background, The Living Way will almost always find a way to reach you.
And now to the Very Important Business of Georgette’s post.
As most of you already know, Georgette Cressend is my Asheville Connection. She organizes my events in Asheville, and I stay at her place when I’m up there. You haven’t lived until you’ve tried the flannel sheets in her spare bedroom on a cold mountain night!
Georgette is also my dear friend and valued student. She does some teaching on her own, and I’m tickled to death to be able to share her with you. Be sure to say hello with a comment to this post, and you can reach her personally at [email protected].
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THE DANCE OF NAMASTE
by
Georgette Cressend
.
A sanctuary of appearances
Where nothing is requested and everything is given;
Where inspiration emerges effortlessly in the fullness of Trust and Tenderness;
Where the finiteness of form
Is wholeheartedly welcomed into Love’s Infinity
I began to think it would never end, the search that is. So often I thought I’d found permanent bliss, but it wouldn’t last and I’d be right-back-smack-dab-in-the-middle of a search-and-find mission called georgette. I did find, but no matter the find, no matter how profound, blissed out, or insightful, the familiar fables I thought were me quickly took center stage, and the search for a final A-HA was once again in kick-ass mode.
I’ll begin with what seems like the inauguration of georgette and her time in office, revealed to me in my thirties through a strong pull toward writing. Phrases would pop into my head out of the blue, carrying with them an impulse to pick up the pen. One day the phrase trying to belong popped in, and memories of my birth came alive in me and filled the page with the apparent beginning of my search.
Right out of the womb there was a sense of being totally alone, even though I was surrounded by movement. The cozy warmth of amniotic fluid drained away, leaving me in a cold background of confusion. All I could do was scream, which would come and go all on its own. It was all brand new, not necessarily bad, just such a contrast to the world I had just left. I was sure someone shouted, “Lights, camera, action,” with everyone knowing their place in the movie but me.
From my comfy cocoon I entered an idea that something was missing, and at the moment of birth, it was my mother! In those days many women were anesthetized during childbirth. My mom’s unconsciousness felt to me like she was MIA … and I had to find her. The search got stronger as I felt more and more alone, even though held tightly by an unrecognized, restraining advocate of survival, a pink blanket.
The need to survive warranted finding a way to belong, and the movements around me, known as them, certainly possessed it. Since they all seemed to belong, I was going to play the game like them. My mother was one of them, apprehended by something that kept us secluded and distant. What was I to do? How could I let them know that I was one of them?
I can see now that I had a lifetime, paid pass into a grand movie. The theater was mine to use as I wished, but I didn’t know that. Instead I adhered to the sacred decrees that were agreed upon but rarely, if ever, spoken. It came from the highest authority that I should: do as they said, not as they do; don’t rock the boat; and be seen not heard. What a beautiful invitation to find ways to be seen, heard and loved. So that’s what I did. I searched for ways to obey the decrees and make me and them happy. I became a good girl … but not a very happy one.
.
A poem by Nic Askew brings home the point …
WAITING
She waited for the world to recognize her,
Unaware that it was an entire world that waited patiently
For her to show herself …
From the near side
of her poorly
imagined story.
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The good girl danced her way into adolescence, performing on stage from age 3 to 15. Dancing was room to move and mingle in a boundless aperture, unlike my photographer-father’s camera that taught me exactly how and where to stand, and, of course, to always smile. Dancing allowed me to move freely into and out of any stance, smile or not. There was even room for the me that had room only for itself to disappear.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin uses the term leaky margins. That’s what happened to me when I danced; my perceived boundaries softened and sometimes disappeared. Georgette’s margins became leaky phantom-forms of freedom. It’s kind of like Dancing with the Stars, the TV show. The stars become dancers and the dancers become stars, leaky margins! Isn’t it amazing what happens when who we think we are steps out of who we think we are!
I stopped dancing in high school, and discovered a deep love of horses when I went to a dude ranch in Tennessee. It was as if the horses knew me and were willing to give me everything of themselves. I was relaxed and confident for the first time, able to ride the most unruly of the herd, when others couldn’t. Being one with the horse didn’t know itself as that. Nothing was known. Everything was just wide open.
Life after high school included being a nun for two years, getting a college degree, marrying, having 2 children, divorcing and beginning an in-depth, multidimensional exploration in my late thirties. For seven years I saw a hypnotist that guided me inward via spirit guides, past lives and communication with Nature. I discovered I was clairvoyant and gave lots of attention to energy healing, conscious out-of-body travel, etc. I worked as a channel, counselor and meditation teacher.
I was able to see beyond the surface, looking from a clarity that brought relief to those I served. I was able to meet people where they were, at least when I was working with them. In my every-day-run-of-the-mill-life it was not so easy to meet me where I was. Counseled by thought, I bounced in and out of misery and joy. That was okay until it wasn’t, and one day it wasn’t!
Upon waking one morning I shouted to the Universe, “Show me the truth! Whatever it takes, no matter what!” My prayer was answered, and everything that was unresolved began to surface. I saw how the belief that I had something others needed distracted me from my own bleeding wounds. A false sense of inferiority that trekked its way into feeling needed was the good girl’s way of belonging.
Buddhism fell into my lap, well actually, a Buddhist book fell on my foot in a book store. Validation to take the Buddhist path came again as I passed the bulletin board and saw a flyer for a Buddhist study group. Yea, you guessed it. I joined. I had to! The book that had dropped on my foot was the book being studied in the group … just the thing to keep the search going, right?
Sanskrit was very familiar to me and I just fell in love with the word Namaste. Its meaning and usage felt so true, so dear to this depth I couldn’t describe. In Sanskrit the word is namah + te = Namaste, which means I bow to you, my greetings, salutations to you. The word namaha can also be literally interpreted as na ma, not mine. It has a spiritual significance of negating or reducing one’s ego in the presence of another. Georgette tried her damnest to live as a Buddhist and express Namaste in her life. Periodically Namaste would live her, and when it did everyone benefitted.
I offered workshops and private sessions for years in New Orleans, my birth town, and then here in Asheville, my home for the last eight years. Listening from silence has been easy for me, but living from silence wasn’t fully established. So, the search was still on!
Following an awakening around 2008, georgette thought she woke up and began to offer Satsung in Asheville. After a couple of months, Truth stepped in and abruptly put a halt to it. The realization was clear: there’s no such thing as awake georgette! I had embellished and redesigned the guru’s message so the good girl could belong. Satsung, a gathering of Truth, revealed the scam.
This realization catapulted me to my knees. Humbled by Grace, the angel upon which Truth arrives, the good girl, who was so sure of her role, couldn’t find her place on stage. She was being seen for the first time, really seen, really heard, and really loved. The stray bullets she fired at her allies and adversaries found their way into her. Many of the wounds were in plain sight, and ignorance was no longer an option. The dam didn’t have a hole in it; it completely crumbled, leaving all its Pandora-box-pieces in my lap!
“Such a soul [one who has forgotten itself in God] is not blinded to its own faults or indifferent to its own errors; it is more conscious of them than ever, and increased light shows them in plainer form, but this self-knowledge comes from God, and therefore it is not restless or uneasy.” Fenelon
I sat with many teachers since that first awakening, and the two most profound were the horses at Equinection and Fred Davis. Prior to meeting Fred, I worked with the horses and Karen Head, director of Equinection, for four and half years. I discovered what it means to BE IN THE BODY. Just as important, I discovered that I didn’t reside there! In a workshop with Karen and the horses, I saw clearly where I looked from, where I lived from; above my head and a bit to the right. Yes, that’s where I lived, not here, but above my head, a bit to the right. From such a perspective, searching was my only option.
The horses reflected the truth of my inner state, which often didn’t match what I thought or said. They didn’t care if I liked them. I couldn’t hide my wounds from them or pretend to be happy. If I did, they’d turn their butts to me and walk away. When I was being real and honest, they’d come close, so close that the perceived distance between us could only serve to join us in boundless, unconditional Love.
After 10 or so workshops (Hey, it was only 10 or so) at Equinection, it became easier to be aware of the conflict between what I thought was happening and what was really happening. If the horse walked away, I quickly took another look here and told the truth. Living here, actually inhabiting the body, brought deep relief … and… there was still a sense of something missing and a pressure to do, to be, to arrive somewhere else.
Enter Fred Davis, my heart-felt self, friend and teacher. A little over a year ago, we met at his home for an awakening session and Love surrendered to Itself. In no uncertain terms, Fred offered me, as he offers everyone, a direct experience of my True Nature, beginning with a very important first step: understanding how the illusory separate self is invented. With the lines undrawn and the movie deconstructed, the search ended … only 65 years later.
Thoughts, sensations and feelings are still noticed, but no longer entice this Presence into forgetting Itself. The seduction of separation has lost its forcefulness to what it rests in. The beliefs that once ruled the surface of the good girl can still pop up, looking like a good girl is still here. But nothing can belong to her, and she can no longer try to belong. Seeing through the good girl facade allows the transparent and empty inspiration of Love to express holographically as IT wishes.
Seeing that I am what everything appears in allows me to be in the midst of live fire and remain woundless. Thought, emotions, and upset arise but have nothing to stick to. They vanish quickly and leave no trace of what was. With nothing left of an upset, the need to say or do anything is relieved … which allows the saying and doing of anything! When needed, Presence will humanize through delineation, definition and endearment, always remaining the empty okayness receiving whatever form shows up in IT.
All the familiar components of commentary and identification dissolve into what gives them Life. The flow of thoughts can no longer interrupt the natural flow of awareness in which they live. Using this body/mind as IT pleases, Presence meets Itself as is. Form is honored with an infinite capacity to receive/give without wanting or desiring anything. As Presence (dis)appears into form, IT in-forms that there is no final a-ha, only the Dance of Namaste, the unrelated, timeless moments of meeting ITSELF.
Awakeness continues to show Itself in unfamiliar ways. Fred recently posted an email I sent him about an experience I had a couple of months ago. It was a stripping away of even more of the pressure to do, to be, to arrive somewhere. I was amazed to notice that any pressure was still here, but it was!
This Presence brings Life to the Dance of Namaste that seems to takes place in form. Without need of thought, or need to know, IT adorns ITSELF with human-ness. IT has no need for time, and washes it out with the tide into a seamless ocean of unknown nowness. IT is ultimately capable of being human and doing all the things that humans do, minus the trappings of a separate self. With the lines of relativity blurred, the Dance of Namaste is ITS dance, letting ITSELF be enough of you and me so IT can ask: May I have the pleasure of this dance?
I love you,
georgette
.
October 23, 2014 @ 2:51 pm
Thank you Georgette,for this beautifully written piece.
October 23, 2014 @ 2:52 pm
Thank you, Michael! She’ll certainly see this! F
October 24, 2014 @ 1:48 pm
You’re welcome, Michael.
It was a pleasure, a true labor of love.
October 23, 2014 @ 4:29 pm
I love u georgette ! Feeling so grateful to be living life with you!!! 🙂
October 23, 2014 @ 5:44 pm
Thank you, Susan! Georgette will certainly see this! F
October 24, 2014 @ 1:59 pm
Thank you, Susan.
Its a hoot to be here w/ you too … “life-ing” together.
October 23, 2014 @ 5:31 pm
I think I’ll buy a horse. Cheaper and easier in the long run! ha ha
October 23, 2014 @ 5:43 pm
Hey, Irv! Maybe we should ALL buy horses!! F
October 23, 2014 @ 7:40 pm
Yeah, I hated it so much I sent it to 14 of my best friends.
THANK YOU F & G !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 23, 2014 @ 8:15 pm
Thanks, Irv!!! I love your enthusiasm!! 🙂
October 23, 2014 @ 8:56 pm
One last post = What The Buddha said:
My dreamlike form
Appeared to dreamlike beings
To show them the dreamlike path
That leads to dreamlike enlightenment.
—from the Bhadrakalpa Sutra
He must have been a real blast to hang out with !
October 23, 2014 @ 9:24 pm
Perfect.
It’s so important for us to understand that it’s not black or white, zero or one, either/or, relative or absolute. We don’t want to deny the dream, we simply want to recognize it as experience versus “fact”.
October 24, 2014 @ 2:02 pm
me too, Irv!
Its so easy to feel your trumpet of “yes.”
October 24, 2014 @ 2:18 pm
And thank you, Irv, for your willingness to share yourself so unabashedly! (is that the right word?) g
October 24, 2014 @ 2:00 pm
right on, irv!
October 23, 2014 @ 5:34 pm
A feeling of knowing you/me as I looked at your picture and felt emotion welling up and then as I began to read ahhh the good girl
the connection the familiarity the knowing of the game I play of
Trying to be that girl – soo difficult to continue playing at it now
Truth life keeps abutting me and the oblivion I used to be – going there is no longer comfortable – no – more like unable to be that
I can’t think my way into or out of This hmmmm
Lana
October 23, 2014 @ 5:43 pm
I like this, Lana! F
October 24, 2014 @ 2:09 pm
Lana, isn’t it so cool to go to a rummage sale and find others sifting through the same stuff. With just a smile we become great friends.
“Unable to be that” – yes – gives room to be this.
Thank you for connecting. g
October 23, 2014 @ 5:45 pm
Shelly is always the mud the bright light is stuck in!! Good to hear from you!
Let us remember that Nonduality is totally inclusive. It does not dismiss or exclude relativity. While this present experience may or may not ultimately be true, it is unquestionably experienced. F
October 23, 2014 @ 6:09 pm
“Let’s dance!”
This comes from a deep well. A great help for cloudiness. The cinema/theatre analogy is so precise, and there’s even the film Avatar. Sometimes I know we and all creation are avatars of the One.
Thanks for this moving post.
October 23, 2014 @ 6:26 pm
Thank you, Robbin!
October 24, 2014 @ 2:12 pm
The dance is in motion! What an easy partner you are to follow/lead.
Being Avatars strikes a deep note in me. As I feel your words, i know you.
Thank you for this, g
October 24, 2014 @ 8:24 am
Precious Fred & Georgette&Betsy
Thank You Fre”e”d for ALL You are sharing with the WHOLE.
I so~so~so appreciate & enjoy it. Deeply touched again by your latest You tube upload & España Olé Olé !
Dear Georgette ~me.,
Thank You for mirroring back, my almost simular 65 years ‘life’s explorations.
Merging & Dissolving again & again
SMILE !
Lovely Betsy
Lets’Dance!
Much Love
October 24, 2014 @ 4:29 pm
What a great comment! Thank you!
Love,
Fred & Betsy (who are One)
October 30, 2014 @ 5:25 am
_/\_
October 27, 2014 @ 12:58 pm
Leny,
Yes, the lights are all on when we resonate with another’s story. Its kinda like the story is the switch that lights up what’s holding it.
Thank you for responding.
My heart is your’s, g
October 30, 2014 @ 5:26 am
_/\_
October 30, 2014 @ 5:51 pm
Thank you, leny!
October 24, 2014 @ 1:57 pm
Your right, Shelly, its all crap ! Yet, even this crap is worthy of awareness.
thank you for responding. i am honored.
October 24, 2014 @ 7:03 pm
As I read All of the above and acknowledgement flows freely
No where in particular no agenda, destination, desire , want
Gratitude gratitude gratitude
Lana
Almost 65
Chuckling as I type a figure of No consequence and chuckling at
The word consequence
October 24, 2014 @ 7:49 pm
Hello again, Lana-almost-65! I’ll chuckle with you.
No-account Fred
October 27, 2014 @ 1:00 pm
Lana,
The chuckle is here too. Its everywhere isn’t it!
Thank you for the reminder!
loving you, g
October 30, 2014 @ 5:32 am
_/\_
October 30, 2014 @ 5:51 pm
And again! 🙂
October 25, 2014 @ 10:53 pm
Dear Georgette,
Beautiful post, so many talents. You write like a poet. I’ve wanted to talk with you so many times.
Love,
Arlene
October 27, 2014 @ 1:02 pm
Arlene,
Let’s talk! I’d love that too!
The poet in me would love be poetic with you.
Email, Skype or call … if you’re moved.
love, g
October 25, 2014 @ 10:53 pm
Dear Georgette,
Beautiful post, so many talents. You write like a poet. I’ve wanted to talk with you so many times.
Love,
Arlene
October 27, 2014 @ 3:44 am
Beautiful <3 Thanks so much for sharing this with the world. I'd like you (Georgette) to be my next pod cast interview victim 🙂 It makes sense since Fred was my first. Thanks and love to you both.
Trey
October 27, 2014 @ 4:39 am
Hey, Trey! Good to hear from you! I’m sure G will be thrilled. 🙂
All love,
Fred
October 27, 2014 @ 1:12 pm
Trey,
wow! What an honor it would be to share the podcast with you! Thank you for the invitation. Just let me know where and when?
I treasure the thought of being your victim … and the realizations that spawn from it!
love, g
October 27, 2014 @ 1:15 pm
Thank you, Fred, for ALL that you do, be and love. You are such an expanded arena for us to be do and love too.
I love you with all my heart and beyond, g
October 29, 2014 @ 1:16 pm
I love you, G.
October 30, 2014 @ 5:30 am
_/\_
October 30, 2014 @ 5:51 pm
Thank you again, leny!