Deirdre: Today I am excited to have another wonderful friend on the show—Cate Montana who is a wonderful spiritual leader and author of The E Word: Ego, Enlightenment & Other Essentials. You have just moved to Hawaii isn’t that right?
Cate: I just moved to Maui, yes.
Deirdre: What’s that like?
Cate: It’s extraordinary. The sea life is amazing—I’m realizing how deeply connected with the sea I’ve been. That’s why I moved there.
Deirdre: That’s the mystical, right?
Cate: Indeed it is.
Deirdre: The mystical rapture. So, love no matter what, that is what our discussion is this week.
Cate: I’ve been contemplating this since we talked about doing this show this morning.
Deirdre: And you’re laughing.
Cate: Well, it’s an interesting topic. I had to really examine how do I love no matter what? How can I? How could I? Do I? The best I can come up with, the best I can probably manage, is compassion.
Deirdre: That’s it, that’s loving. Yes, I think sometimes we think these concepts are too deep, Like, “Oh no, I have to think about that.” But really, the exciting thing is that when we contemplate something like love no matter what, it takes us into a deeper connection with each other. Even if you can’t love no matter what … I mean, I don’t love no matter what minute-by-minute. But I contemplate what that would look like. Then, on a lucky day, I might actually do it. But I contemplate it. That’s where you’re the Silent Watcher of just that neutral place of “Okay, I have set a new intention, love no matter what. Oh, did that happen here? If it didn’t, let me try it another way.”
What I have found so exciting is that then, by the end of the day, I am actually more connected to my heart, my soul, my body. I feel more present with people just by contemplating that idea.
Cate: Right.
Deirdre: What did you experience?
Cate: Exactly that. It is indeed a way of becoming mindful. It is a way of not going on automatic pilot and finding yourself chuntering over the latest political fiasco, or what your ex-husband did or whatever. It is a constant reminder and is beautiful in that. The trick is to not beat myself up about it if I didn’t love no matter what—if I don’t live up to my expectations of what I am holding as an ideal.
Deirdre: Right.
Cate: But to realize instead that, just like you said, this is a tool for being mindful.
Deirdre: Exactly. The thing is, we have to love ourselves no matter what.
Cate: Starting with number one!
Deirdre: Starting with number one. If we don’t do that, then it’s more difficult to love someone else. The outer is the inner, the inner is the outer. Everything is a mirror for us, showing us something that we want to see, or maybe don’t want to see. When we consciously say, “I’m going to allow my outer actions to deeply affect my inner actions, I am going to allow my inner actions to affect my outer actions,” to be conscious of that, that’s when we create the connection. That’s when we move into oneness and end the separation. Which brings me to the other topic I want to share this morning from the Kaballah, and that is the understanding of descending and ascending light. What does that mean? What is the darkness? The darkness is where the rapture is and the mystery. I want to just kind of give everyone a simple, Readers Digest, easily digestible, teaching that comes from the lineage of the Kabbalah. And that is that every small act of greatness creates universal resilience. That is my understanding. And the Kabbalah explains that this works because every act, every bit of service …
Cate: No matter how small …
Deirdre: No matter how small, every time we overcome a negativity, a negative reaction and do the opposite, when we create something good for someone, we are actually lifting out of this world of the darkness, the ignorance. We are lifting the light. We are carrying the light to heaven—heaven being understood as the place and time of the potential of our family in harmony and union together. So we are actually knitting the fabric of consciousness back together, heaven being here on Earth …
Cate: Right now.
Deirdre: Exactly, right here, right now. In this understanding of everything being in the whole, no matter what it is, if anyone sees it or even knows it, you are giving a service to all of humanity.
Cate: Absolutely. When you refrain from having that ugly thought, or gossiping about somebody—no matter how large or how small that gift, since we are all one and connected within the quantum field of energy and information, that gift impacts the whole instantaneously.
Deirdre: That’s right.
Cate: Then we have uplifted the whole. We have given our friends, our neighbors, the entire world, that little keyhole opening to do the same thing themselves, in turn uplifting the frequency of the whole.
Deirdre: That is exactly right. There is another Kabbalistic saying that is, “If we didn’t have these billions of small acts of goodness the entire world would sink into darkness.”
Cate: Wow.
Deirdre: That’s what lifts us, what keeps us buoyant here—our acts of kindness, of goodness, of service. That’s the real meaning of the Hebrew word Mitzvah. Acts of kindness and goodness are a mandate.
Cate: Isn’t that interesting? Because I know I’ve spent so much time on this path, going into the cave, isolating myself, thinking that to get to God I had to be isolated and always in this meditative state. Now, I’ve come full circle and it’s like “Get out there!” The work is in the world, seeing there is no separation. As above so below.
Deirdre: Absolutely.
Cate: And this work in the world is like, wow—it’s not about isolating myself. The true test is walking it not just talking it.
Deirdre: Right. Can you do it? That’s so true, Cate. And also, going back to this theme of ascending and descending, or of positive and negative action and non-action, the duality that we live in here. We are always in the dance in the Lela of creation. A dance happens, or art happens wherever there is opposing forces. That tension is what creates art, music, dance. Without that tension, life is not as exciting.
Cate: Without the tension of opposites, life as we know it wouldn’t exist.
Deirdre: Yes, it’s like how can you make the color purple? If you don’t have red and blue, you can’t do it. So the transformation is taking these opposites we see in the world today. We see many opposites and difficulties. We face many things thinking, “I can never face this!” Things that are very upsetting. The question is, can we take this negativity, and through our mystical self, through our sacred alchemy, actually work with this energy—with the opposite energy of light—to create a magical intention?
Cate: And realize everything is an ingredient.
Deirdre: Right.
Cate: For that making, for that creation, everything is part of the dance. Instead of saying, “Well, I can’t dance with that” it’s about realizing “Wow, that’s energy too. That’s a gift.” That’s like in the martial art of Aikido, the blow that you are struck, it’s a gift. Take it. Use it.
Deirdre: Use the energy.
Cate: Exactly.
Deirdre: It’s all life force we can create with. So, I want to pose a question, or even a challenge for all of us who see ourselves as light workers, or seekers, because we really want to make this world better. What if we decided we are going to take the negativity and work with it to create something new? Some kind of creation—a piece of music, some dance. So how do we find the energy to collect and manage to love no matter what?
Cate: Because it does take energy.
Deirdre: It takes energy to be able to love no matter what. Well, this is where we go into our mini-cave. Sometimes it’s important to pull away from life, to spend time in the quiet and contemplation. And then it is also important to go back out. In today’s world, all of us who want to stay in the cave, we are being propelled to go back out. The world needs our service and we need each other, and we need to know that we are all here together.
Cate: Yes.
Deirdre: Working to hold the light of consciousness. So how do we connect? How do we get the strength to love no matter what? The first thing is to have a practice of being able to bring energy into your body. What I mean by that is an energy practice, a meditation that includes the conscious connection to a divine source.
Cate: Right.
Deirdre: There are many, many brilliant teachers for this in Tai Chi and yoga for example. There are many, many incredible methods for connecting into receiving energy from source.
Cate: Especially sitting out in nature.
Deirdre: Sitting out in nature.
Cate: Simply that can do wonders.
Deirdre: I’m so grateful to have studied, to have learned, to have worked with so many incredible teachers of energy. My system, the system I work with that was given to me, the system of radiance, is based on the understanding of divine light and a method to channel the divine light within us is through the Tree of Life.
Cate: You know, it’s amazing. I’ve had such a shift since I have been introduced to the Tree of Life meditation. It is awesome because it puts us right where we are, already hooked up—it helps us realize we’re already hooked up to the divine.
Deirdre: Yes, to divine source, because the Tree of Life is also the complete chakra system. This system is really a strategy to be able to open the gates to the universal life force and regenerate one’s own body. That is what it does. You can also get a five-minute regenerative energy meditation on my website. Of course, in the Kripalu retreat we are going to be spending hours in the regenerative energy to restore our body, mind, and spirit to health. Because the message I got is that we are all out there working and we are getting tired. So we need to come together, not even so much to learn, but we need to come together so we can regenerate ourselves and allow the spirit to heal us and give us our resilience and strength.
Cate: Wherever two or more are gathered.
Deirdre: Yes, exactly, that’s exactly right. So that is a little bit of how I recommend you find love no matter what. Cate, why don’t we close with a Radiance Journey to activate and connect with the mystical rapture while it is the light. How does that sound?
Cate: That sounds delicious.
Deirdre: Okay, great. So, please, just take a moment. Gently watch your breath. As you watch your breath become aware of the Silent Watcher. You may even begin to feel this presence, like a beautiful deep purple cloak, like a cloak descending down over you, the Silent Watcher, the descending master, ancient, since the beginning of time, of the depth of wise vision. Just call in the Silent Watcher. See yourself in this deep purple cloak, the most beautiful purple light. As we gently watch our breath, we see now, within this purple cloak, that we are now standing within an amethyst light—this is the world, the universe, the temple of purple light … the healing and transforming light, the violet transforming flame. Here in this amethyst cave in the center is a brilliant flame of the most intoxicating purple light. And you now simply step into this flame.
This flame is a living, angelic presence of yourself as a transformer of energy. As you stand in this flame, this flame is wrapping around you, wrapping up through you, filling every organ and cell, filling your face, your brain, your hands, dancing through this brilliant purple flame. As this purple flame dances through you effortlessly, this flame opens every cell, every little place of consciousness that holds a negative thought, a negative feeling that doesn’t serve you. We are going to use this negative energy to propel our intention, to propel and activate and actualize our affirmation, our intention, our core value as we see, now, deep in our belly, a golden orb forming. This beautiful golden orb is the seed of your consciousness. It is the powerful alchemy of sacred light and sacred dark.
Now imagine that you are just dropping into this golden orb and resting there. Just sit in this golden light. Now you feel this golden light all around you like an egg, a cocoon. This golden shimmering light is filling your body, healing your body, healing your mind, your emotions, healing your pain, filling you with this light of the Divine Presence, the feminine, nurturing, the Divine Mother, the divine sister, the divine Goddess dancing in harmony and balance.
Now, allow this golden light to fill every cell. There is nothing to do and nowhere to go. Just be and allow yourself to be restored and renewed, regenerated and healed in this golden light giving you energy, giving you divine thought, allowing your heart to open because you are in the mystical rapture of divine love.
Let’s just breathe here for a few moments. Now, anchor your feet into the ground. Rub your hands together and take a deep breath and open your eyes and come back. Just be aware of the feeling in your body, the little shimmering. How was that? How was your feeling?
Cate: Yum-yum
Deirdre: Yum-yum, I love that. That is exactly right, it’s yum-yum. We are going to call this the yum-yum practice. I think it’s a good name for it. I am a teacher of yum-yum. That’s what I’m all about … yum-yum.
So, that resonance that you’re experiencing is the radiance of your being, your soul. It is how we feel when our bodies, our cells, our consciousness, our soul are being renewed and filled with light. Because the soul, our light that brings us this animation, this gift of life, actually has to be filled with light in order to stay strong.
Cate: Because light is its natural home.
Deirdre: It is its natural home. It’s a frequency of rapture. When you’re in rapture you know your soul is happy because, “Oh, I’m home.”
Cate: And all things are possible.
Deirdre: And all things are possible, that is exactly right. From that, love is possible,
healing is possible, global transformation is possible.
Cate: Inevitable actually.
Deirdre: Inevitable. Alright, thank you all for being here, and thank you Cate. It was so fun to have you here, coming in from Hawaii. Love to all. God bless.