Barbara's Blog & Essays from VisionEmrys
Resolution
Early in January a few years ago, someone asked me if I’d made any New Year’s resolutions. It had been a long time since I’d heard that kind of question, so I suppose I didn’t hear the unspoken invitation to look back on my past and to judge myself. I answered quickly and cheerfully. [...]
[Click to Continue →]The Nativity
The Nativity
As with all stories that arise from the wellspring of human imagination, the Nativity tells the story of us. We are storytellers, of course, but we are also the Only Story we know how to tell. From fairy tale to sacred scripture, from gossip to timeless mythology, we have always been describing ourselves. In [...]
The Hero You Are
The Hero You Are
If I asked you to sit down with me and make up a fairy tale, using your imagination to create a colorful and compelling story, you and I would have so much fun. You would have fun in the act of creating; I would have fun just listening and allowing myself to [...]
Assemblage Point
In various traditions associated with the Toltec, there is often a reference made to what is called your assemblage point. Like many terms encountered in spiritual teachings, it is given the power to mystify and misdirect. Like all symbols that are used in ordinary communication, its power is determined by the one who uses it. [...]
[Click to Continue →]Grace
Maybe you can already see how knowledge insinuates itself in all ways, through all thought – including your spiritual process. You try to think yourself into higher consciousness. You use mental strategies in order to make yourself appear more authentic. You use word to calm the mind of its war of words. You try not [...]
[Click to Continue →]Dry Dirt and Daffodils
Once upon a time in a land not so different from our own, there lived a man. He awoke one day, groggy from a long sleep, and found himself alone in a house filled with clutter. Worse, his head was filled with thoughts that pained him and would not give him peace. He was sorely [...]
[Click to Continue →]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, and [...]
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 life [...]
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, more [...]
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 begin to shift [...]