Author Archive
Significant Experiences
Student: What would you say were significant experiences or actions that you took that stand out in your mind? Barbara: I guess we can go back to the first premise of this teaching, which is not to believe yourself or anybody else. We learn to listen to what we are thinking, what we are saying, [...]
[Click to Continue →]Living with Awareness
Student: How do we answer the question, “What do I do with my life? What do I do with my job? My wife? My strife?” How do you make life decisions without an explanation or a story for everything? Barbara: OK. Let’s start with the story that there is something to be done about my [...]
[Click to Continue →]Spiritual Warriors
Student: One word we use a lot is “warrior” when we describe this path. What do we get out of seeing ourselves in the role of warrior? Barbara: Well I very often see people come into this teaching with the idea of a warrior as somebody with a saber between his teeth taking on life, [...]
[Click to Continue →]Lies and Distortions
Student: We use the word “lie” and “liar” a lot. For a lot of people, them’s fighting words! Barbara: Yes. Those are rough words. Student: Can you expand on why we find ourselves using a very powerful word like “lie”? What comes of seeing ourselves as “liars”? Barbara: When there is a disturbance created, we [...]
[Click to Continue →]Standard of Perfection
Student: If we don’t have a standard of perfection that we are aiming for, how do we gauge where we are in the process of our evolution? Barbara: First of all, the self-judgment doesn’t come from listening. The self-judgment comes from our conditioning over a lifetime. We’ve learned this way of being with ourselves, this [...]
[Click to Continue →]Rumi
Student: I was reading this in Rumi, and I know that you and I share a fondness for his poetry. We have been talking a great deal about beliefs and language and messaging. Rumi has a story about God talking to Moses. “I want burning, burning! Those who pay attention to ways of behaving and [...]
[Click to Continue →]Recapitulation and Emotions
Student: In Toltec writings, the word recapitulation is mentioned. Various techniques are described regarding breathing, movement, location. What is the most salient element of recapitulation? Barbara: Number one, don’t let the number of syllables in the word intimidate you! It is just a word, and it refers to a review of events or people in [...]
[Click to Continue →]Point of View
Student: How does looking at the world with absolute awareness differ from the way you used to see, and how has that affected your relationships? Barbara: What I am able to perceive all around me no longer carries the baggage of meaning, no longer carries the taint of bad memories, or interpretations that were made [...]
[Click to Continue →]Personal History
Student: There is an expression in use by Toltecs called, “erasing personal history.” What does that expression mean to you? Barbara: Earlier we were discussing our investment in the meaning of events in our life and our interactions with individuals in our personal story, and really, “erasing personal history”, is the detaching from that investment. [...]
[Click to Continue →]What is a Nagual?
Student: What is a nagual? Barbara: The concept of a nagual is that which is non-material. In Toltec teachings, tonal is all that is material and can be known. So, from the legend of Smokey Mirror, seeing the night sky, seeing the stars and the space between the stars, we can say that the stars [...]
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