On Grounded Spirituality

Book Foreword included

Some time ago, I devoted myself to writing the book Grounded Spirituality. I had spent many years exploring the ways that spirituality had often been characterized, and found myself longing to share other possibilities. It was no easy feat. It was one thing to critically review a number of existing approaches, but quite another to craft my own vision of possibility—something that I currently call the ‘Enrealment Method’.

In the coming months, I will share a series of excerpts from Grounded Spirituality with you. If one thing is crystal clear, it is that we need to craft new spiritualities that meet us where we are as a species. Some of them have already been developed, and others are readying to be birthed. If my work can serve to inspire you to bring your own model to life, then I am delighted. We need what you have to offer us desperately. Patriarchal and ‘New Cage’ spiritualities may well have served us for a time, but they no longer do. It’s time to ground our spirituality in reality, in all its forms.

Author and spiritual activist Andrew Harvey stood behind me for many years, encouraging me to take on the system and to forge new understandings. In the following podcast, we discuss Grounded Spirituality and the pressing need for a spirituality that responds passionately to the current crisis:

And, on Apple...

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A new spirituality is arising, one that upholds the self, the heart and the body. It is both a very ancient and very evolutionary spirituality. It is a spirituality that calls on us not to denigrate, transcend or reject who we are as a self, but rather to embody it and ennoble it in service of mankind and the Earth. It is a spirituality of freedom and of service, in other words, of authenticity and solidarity. —Chris Saade

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ANDREW HARVEY’S BOOK FORWARD FOR GROUNDED SPIRITUALITY

This is a book we have all been unconsciously waiting for. It is a book written by a man who has truly understood the dereliction of our time. The collapse of any real moral or spiritual reverence, and the bankruptcy of the religious and guru systems. It is a book written by a man who has not only understood this but stayed profoundly faithful to the vision that was being birthed in him, of a path to the Divine through the body. This may seem small, or in some ways, fascinating but not profound… but the reality of our situation is, as all the great evolutionary mystics have shown us, that we are going through a massive and necessary global “dark night”in order to fulfill the evolutionary will of the Divine: to co-create the birth of a new embodied divine humanity. It is this birth—this extraordinary miraculous amazing birth—that is our greatest hope. And if you want to understand how this birth works, read this book.

In this book, you will find someone who truly understands that the divinization of the body is the key to the birth of a human race that can respond from the fullness of itself to the problems now erupting everywhere. What Jeff Brown understands is that this birth of the Divine in the body is the hardest path of all. Because in order to take this path, we have to unlearn all of the religious and mystical messages we have been given about the illusory nature of the body, the sinfulness of the body, the ignorance and illusion steeped in the body. Unlearning these messages is an excruciating business because it forces us to look at the ways in which we have treated our bodies. To re-enter the body, as Jeff Brown brilliantly shows both in his own writing about his own journey, and in the amazingly passionate, rustic, and nakedly honest conversations that he has with the character in the book, Michael—requires extraordinary courage.

This is true for three reasons. The first reason I have already suggested: It is deeply challenging to unlearn all the messages that we have been given about our body. In my own case, this was a frightening reality and adventure because it compelled me to understand the ways in which mystical reality had been manipulated for power for millennia. This was a very sobering and devastating recognition. The second reason is that to re-enter the body, you have to confront all of the trauma, karmic terror, grief, and deep suffering that your body has stored over your lifetime. This is part of the reason why so many people are refugees from the body, and why so many people embrace transcendental philosophies that deny the body. The work of actually going down into the body to listen to the screams that have been suppressed by our wounds and that are hidden within the body is a devastating process… necessary but painful and very, very demanding. The third reason why going down into the body is so demanding is that the body itself resists transformation by the light. Sri Aurobindo has written brilliantly of the four sheaths by which the body protects itself. They are very real, and not easily dissuaded from their protective mission. Through this book, you will find ways of being so inspired by what living in the body can open up for you, that you will become not only willing to do the work, but thrilled to do the work. Because Jeff Brown’s genius is to open up to us such an exciting and invigorating vista of what we can experience if only we arrive here—in full integration of mind, heart, soul, and body, that anyone reading these words with an open heart will long to do whatever is necessary to come into authentic human fullness. This is because he speaks from true lived experience. He has seen and known the joy of what it is to live in a full beingness. And he communicates this, as well as the difficulties, the suffering, the bewilderment, with such reverence that we cannot help but do whatever we must to reclaim our wholeness.

The work of embodiment is not just one more game the human race has to play. Not merely one more version of enlightenment. It is the only way we can possibly go forward. Because until we are united with our bodies, we will never love the body of the earth enough. Until we are living in the pulse and vibrancy of our bodies, we will never love other bodies—the bodies of our friends, and the bodies of our lovers, and the bodies of our parents, and the bodies of our grandparents, and the bodies of our beloved animals. We will never love them enough, because we will never savor the beauty of their presence with enough adoration to do everything we can to save them and the world we live in.

For me, Jeff Brown is a modern-day alchemist. And by that, I mean he has embraced the ancient alchemical path. The ancient alchemical path has 3 stages. First, profound experience of transcendence that reveals divine identity. This makes obvious the truth of what’s written in the Upanishads—You Are That. The patriarchal traditions have mistakenly taken this stage for enlightenment. But the alchemists knew that this was only the first stage. The second stage is the stage that Jeff is such a master of: this is where the deep knowledge of the transcendent and the forces aroused by that knowledge, are consciously integrated step by step with mind, heart, soul and crucially, and most importantly, the depths of the body. As this second stage progresses, the third stage which is called “the simple thing,” starts to emerge… and for this third stage there are very few descriptions, because very few people have truly matured in the mystery of profound union with all that this stage brings. Jeff Brown knows the glowing fringes of this stage and has experienced the truth of the revolutionary birth that happens through the choice to ground transcendence in the depths of reality. And that’s why this book is so important. Because in its rugged, ragged, and absolutely contemporary way, it models the ancient path to transfiguration that was known by the ancient alchemists, and by a small number of grounded mystics that have blessed us with their wisdom. This path for transfiguration now needs to be known everywhere, because everyone needs to align themselves with the evolutionary will of the Divine—not to destroy us, but to transfigure us so that we can become conscious embodied co-creators of a wholly new way of being and doing everything.

What I find wonderful about Jeff Brown’s book, is not only that it offers us a searing indictment of patriarchy on all levels, and not only that it is the most comprehensive dismantling of the superficiality, and bypassing, and voluptuous indulgence, and inanity of the new age… but the real reason I love this book is that it provides a very down-home truthful basis of empowerment for potentially millions of people. If honest seekers can now use their deep mystical experience as a source of power to help them reintegrate their whole selves with the one, then millions of honest seekers can come together in a loving army of beings prepared to risk everything to start healing our world. As a sacred activist and the founder of the movement of sacred activism, I celebrate and salute this book because it will give anyone who wants to truly meet the challenges of our time with honesty, ferocity, and grace—the information, the practices, the vision, and the grounded rugged persistence that they are going to need to step up to the greatest evolutionary challenge humanity has ever faced. Read Jeff Brown’s book, do the practices, saturate yourself in the wisdom that radiates from its pages, and go forward as an increasingly embodied divine human being who is willing to become a sacred activist on behalf of the Divine and the divine-in-humanity, to save our species and our beloved planet.

What one does for diplomacy is not what one does for truth. And Jeff Brown has written a book of truth—one that honors our humanity and offers us a co-creational path home. Join him.

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Barking Dog Yoga

I practiced yoga for many years and loved it. I loved the opening and strengthening of my body, and the greater access to a unified field of consciousness that often emerged on the mat. And yet, something was missing. My emotions would come up in the heart of practice, and there was no real holding space for the expression and healing that wanted to happen. So, I looked closer at the roots of yoga, and found that it seemed to be premised—as are many patriarchal spiritual practices—on an attempt to transcend the ‘toxic body-beast’ by mastering it. Yoga appeared to be a positive “body-loving” practice—but much of it was founded on the idea that the body was a toxic chamber, contaminated by shadow emotions, that needed to be purified of its imperfections. The purpose of the practice was to “purify” the shadow by opening, strengthening, and enlivening the body, as though our spiritual lives exist independent of the body and the emotions we hold. It wasn’t intended as a whole-being integration tool.

This is fundamental to the nature of patriarchal spirituality—the disconnect from the world of feeling, the assumption that our most awakened spiritual path is vertical and exists independent of our feelings, our relationships, and our body itself. Only through the discipline and mastery of the body could the student touch pure consciousness. It was about focus, not feeling. And this just didn’t work for me. I wanted spiritual practices that offered me an experience of presence as a whole being experience—not just those that limited my experience to more comfortable states of being. And I wanted to feel everything that my body contained.

I developed the following practice with this in mind (and body :). I’m interested in whether this resonates with you:

BARKING DOG YOGA PRACTICE

Find an area in your home where you feel safe and comfortable, with space to move. Lie on a mat on the floor. It is optimal to have a mattress or futon also nearby—but a couple of pillows can also suffice. Do this exercise in solitude.

Decide on the yoga practice you will use for the exercise. You can put on a yoga class video, if that will serve you, or do your own sequence of choice. It can be an intense practice, a gentle practice, or somewhere in between. Be sure to include postures that you tend to resist. Do what you feel will best serve your body opening in new ways.

Now set the intention for the class: To use the asanas as an excavation and integration tool. To feel into and express the emotions held in the body. It is not important if you complete the sequence—it is only important that you allow yourself to become more intimate with the material that you are holding within your body temple.

Now begin your practice. As you move into the asanas, invite yourself to feel into any emotions that are held within the body. No rising above them. No sidestepping. No cushioning. No bypassing. Feel your emotions deeply and fully and directly. Allow them to take whatever form they demand. If you feel moved to cry, cry. If you feel called to express anger, express it. If sounds or words come, express them. If joy, happiness and laughter bubble up—express with gleeful abandon. If any uncharacteristic actions arise—trust them. Howl at the moon, bark at the stars, whatever surprising shape takes form—flow with it and express it. If you feel like dancing, dance frenetically. Allow for the fullest range of feeling and organic expression possible. This is not the time for self-judgment, and no one is watching you.

While expressing, you can continue to deepen into the posture, if it brings more feeling to the surface. Or you can stop and attend to your feelings. Feel free to wander off the mat—there are no limits. If you feel called to move, move. If you feel anger or rage arising, feel free to hit and punch the mattress, futon, or pillows. Do not judge yourself. Anger is a healthy blazing fire that hungers to be discharged.

The purpose of Barking Dog Yoga is to not to master the postures—it is to use the asanas as a depth charge for the awakening and healing of any unfinished memories and emotions that you are holding inside.

If, at any time, you feel like what is arising is simply too painful to manage on your own, immediately retreat from the process and seek therapeutic support. Activating the emotional body can bring up all manner of unexpected and overwhelming material, and must be approached with care.

Remember to leave space afterwards for integration of the experience. Before you go back out into the world, be sure to ground and center yourself. We don’t want you barking at strangers. ☺

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With tremendous faith in our possibilities,

Jeff