SURFING the SHIFT with PLAYFULNESS & JOY!

Amanda meets Spiral!

The dolphins have increased the intensity of their interactions with us tremendously – this summer I’ve had some of the most playful and transformational swims with them in my 16 years of bringing people here.

Earlier this month I was swimming with my friends Spiral and Swoop and the gang, playing an intense game of seaweed tag. We were passing the seaweed back and forth, me with my hands and Spiral and Swoop with their mouths, pec fins, dorsal fins and tails. We were having a blast, and it seemed a god time to bring up the question I’d brought with me.

"NOW is always a great time to play!"

“I’ve been guided to bring a couple more groups out to play with you this fall. How does that feel?”

“Bring ‘em!” was the immediate reply. “We will have fun with them, and will assist them in opening further!”

“Its good to have more people holding a focus of joy”, they said. “The world is changing on every level, and those who channel joy and playfulness make a powerful contribution to the process.”

“Is it safe” I asked, having had a wave of dire predictions directed to me by family and friends.

I felt the smile of their reply… “We are all eternally safe, here to leap and play across all creation. Relax, my friend, all is well. Everything is handled by a Loving Creator grander than all of us combined. Trust your joy, for it will guide you to what is truest and best for you.”

I was shown the image of parallel realities lined up alongside each other, each a bit unique from the one next to it. They went from scary to beautiful, so beautiful that I forgot to breath…

“There are infinite realities that share this planet, each with its own degree of fear and love. The question is always the same; which will you choose in this moment?”

I felt the warmth of love flood my being, felt the release of tensions held out of loyalty to others whom I love, others who continue to see a cloudy future… a big sigh came out of me, I felt at home and relaxed, allowing myself to enjoy the beauty that calls so clearly.

“Some will experience separation, others will be filled with joy. To each his own. For us it is an easy choice, one made long ago when we decided to be born into these bodies so beautifully designed to play and love life.”

Who was I to argue? I sure was having a blast playing with them. Then Spiral dropped the seaweed in front of me, and as I kicked hard to grab it, Swoop swept in and beat me to it, squealing and blowing a stream of bubbles out his blowhole (See the photos below – you’ll see us in action when I get the video posted!).

We played for a long time, and pure exuberance filled me many times over. I felt the joy, the relief and the excitement of remembering that all is well, and its being handled by a loving creator much older and wiser than us. I felt the excitement of knowing that every drop of joy and playfulness we feel is a direct contribution to the frequency of this planet.

Joy is our nature, our divine inheritance, and there is no end to how much fun we can have. As many saints and spiritual guides have said throughout history, joy is the unmistakable sign of the presence of God.

How much joy do you want in your life?

Giving you an Ocean of Hugs,

Joe

For more information about our upcoming dolphin trips, visit DolphinWhisperer.org

For info on our September 23 – 27^th  trip , Wild Dolphins, Yoga, Meditation & Joy

And our November 9 – 13^th trip, Celebrating 11:11:11 with the Dolphins

Come play with us!

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Join our email list for upcoming trips, workshops & events –
Joe Noonan, Founder, Planetary Partners
An author, speaker, life coach and spiritual guide, Joe leads retreats around the world and facilitates self awareness programs for those on the path of awakening.
A guest on National Geographic, Fox TV and Oprah, Joe reflects back to people that this world is already a Heaven on Earth, and that the tools to find joy in the moment are around and within us. That harmony is inevitable and that innately we all just love each other and sometimes we forget — he is here to help us remember.

Planetary Partners advocates, educates and celebrates conscious co-creation on an individual, local and global level. We offer workshops, meditations, events and trips that awaken our divine connection with Nature.

Wild Dolphin Trips – http://DolphinWhisperer.org
Self Awareness Programs – http://PlanetaryPartners.com
Corporate Leadership Seminars – http://QuantumLeadershipProject.com
Join Joe on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joe-Noo…

“Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God” Tielhard de Chardin

(Caveat: If you read this post and feel like there is something wrong or needs fixing, I invite you to sink deeper… :)

Its been over a month since I returned from India… and I see now more than ever the profound effect my experiences there have had on me…

Spending 6 weeks in a process of divine inquiry has ignited my desire for complete immersion with the Divine… Now, back into ‘my life’, while I have great appreciation for the joy and beauty and abundance, I also find myself restless and unsettled…

In the past four weeks I’ve had profound connections, joyful abundance, deep insights, beautiful romance, ongoing discovery, miracles galore, but strangely, I do not stay satisfied…

I go in and out, up and down… in the moment, immersed in Life’s beauty, I am happy and ecstatic… then the clouds roll in, the tide shifts, and I find myself profoundly restless and lonely, filled with a yearning that promises to overwhelm me completely…

In India they spoke of ‘God Realization’. I read Yogananda’s ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ as a teenager, and I’ve read it at least once a decade since. I know what they’re talking about… a depth of intimacy with God, a closeness that beckons and taunts, calls out to us from some heavenly place within, a depth of intimacy that is so dear that tears start rolling down my face when I even think about it… (yes, they’re rolling now…)

This is what we all want; this is the original yearning… to be One with the Divine, Immersed with the Beloved, Totally Merged with the One True Soulmate…

I’m in an apartment by myself in Bimini, spending my mornings in contemplation/distraction/prayer and my afternoons out on my little rubber boat enjoying the magnificence of the ocean I love so much… I have beautiful friends here and yet I am isolating myself; last night was dance night and I stayed out on the water by myself; something yearning, gnawing within me, daring me to let this gnawing dig deeper, burn a hole straight into the ugly stinky yearning for God that has festered since the moment we agreed to play the game of ‘other’ infinite eons ago…

There are many ways I avoid this emptiness; read, watch TV, immerse myself in any number of projects that await me… I have coaching clients waiting for me to resume, my voicemail says I’m still in India, and somehow I have changed none of this, preferring instead to just be with this emptiness, this yearning…

‘Get a Life’ the mind says, ‘Jump back in the stream’ it encourages… but my heart, it says stop and feel, and so I feel and in the feeling, I allow the suffering and yearning I’ve run from forever to overtake me…

Yesterday, amidst another wave of feeling helpless and uncertain of what the hell I’m doing, of thinking I’m friggin’ crazy and need to get a life, I pull one of my Course in Miracles cards. It said:

“Nothing can prevail against a Son of God who commends his spirit into the Hands of his Father.”

Reading it triggers grief, hopelessness and relief; relief at the possibility that this yearning has an end…

I have reprieves… yesterday while looking for my dinner out on the sea a big grouper dared me to catch him… I chased him into a ledge, we played hide and seek for an hour, and my attention was solely on bringing him home to feed me and my friends. I say prayers, talk to him as we do our hunter/gatherer dance, invite him home, but in the end he splits and a beautiful Spanish mackerel swims over to me and takes his place.

I clean my catch out on the ocean in my little boat, watching the sun drop lower in the sky… I don’t want to clean the fish at the dock, preferring the solitude of the sea instead… while cleaning, I give thanks to the fish, his life feeding my own, feeling the dichotomy of life and death, give and take, the seeming polarities this world is ripe with…

The emptiness returns and I feel the yearning for company, of friends and laughter and conversation… If I hurry, I can still make it over to south island and join in the fun… But I know that the joy of this is temporary and soon enough I will again be faced with this loneliness, this aching…

I turn again to the yearning for God, feel it alive within me… I nurture it like a hot coal from which to make the evening’s fire… maybe tonight, maybe next time you will burn clean through me…

Back at the dock I’m hailed by two friends, it is great to see them… we share fresh sashimi, I cut up the mackerel right on the dock, and between bites of raw fish and oranges, we appreciate our dinner and the ocean’s offering. Eating the fish while standing in the water a crab scuttles across my foot, demanding his share of the booty… I cut off a piece and hand it to him happily; there is more than enough for everyone… Several more friends stop by, check out my catch, and then I’m on my bike, pedaling home in the dark, to my cave and refuge…

My internet connection is gone, there is no web for me to distract myself with… I turn on the TV for a bit, surf endless dramas and realities with a flick of a finger, knowing I am distracting myself from diving into this yearning.…

Finally, restlessly, I flop onto the bed, give space for this yearning to rise up within me… my heart center, my whole chest expands, the breath becoming softer, wider… I feel myself rising in love…

I am the vessel, a cup, the water level rising higher, higher…

Gently, easily, under its own power and grace the tide of love comes in… As beautiful as it feels, waves of discomfort come with it, discomfort in many forms; physical discomfort (my shoulder’s sore, I ought to roll over), resistance (its late, I ought to get some sleep), tensions from other places and lifetimes…

But the love, it surrounds me, holding me where I am in pain… I vacillate between simply feeling and the mind’s litany of reasons to run…

The scariest of all is the voice of hopelessness, the voice that said “I cannot, I dare not, go any further, because to dive into this yearning further and not have total union with you will completely break my heart… the grief of coming this close and then falling back again, I cannot… “

But I have pulled away from this grief too many times, and somehow, through an act of grace or surrender I know not, ‘I’ stay…

Awareness comes and goes, I’m floating in a sea of bliss, my breath coming naturally of its own accord… I marvel at the effortlessness of it and the pure joy of expansion…

And then the energy shifts, the grace pulls back… I try to ‘pick it up’, try to re-ignite, but the tide is falling…

In India the Guides and Bhagwan speak about the illusion of self effort and the grace of helplessness. Self effort will only slow the process, they say, and so I surrender again and again. Helplessness allows the Divine to step in, so I pray for helplessness…

Remembering all this I give up, roll over and sadly go to sleep, wanting that hot coal to burn completely through me… I pray that maybe it will happen in my sleep, but I have strange dreams, poking around in old dark places… we have traveled many paths on this journey of life…

I wake today, start again, and pull another card… it says:

“It takes great learning to understand that all things,

events, encounters and circumstances are helpful.”

I give thanks for all of this, ALL of it…

And decide to write down this yearning… its been a month since I posted a blog. I’ve started many beautiful posts, but always end up in a pause… I have been in too deep an inner inquiry to share much…

Writing this, typing out and reading the honesty of these words, tears come to my face… they flow easily, tumbling down my cheeks… much healing had happened since India, I have given myself full permission to seek the greatest relationship, the greatest path, the greatest adventure I could ever dream of; complete Union with the Divine… nothing else can come close, and yet everything and everyone IS this relationship… the mind scurries, flitting from one viewpoint to another as I surrender to this process, knowing that the Union I seek is inevitable, the Oneness we yearn for never left, and even this ‘search’ is an illusion…

India, Bhagwan, the Guides, they remind, inspire and awaken within me the passion to go for the greatest ride this world has to offer; complete God Realization… I am present to the game and up for the task… I am doing everything and nothing, and I have the hem of Her robe in my grasp… I am hanging on, hopefully and helplessly, lonely and happily, totally ecstatically…

The grief and the yearning has become strangely comforting, it brings God back into my awareness, back into my life, into me… I choose this over not feeling, I choose this over boredom, I am supremely thankful…

There are many days I am full and complete, I am hugely blessed in how much I feel Life coursing through this body… its just that somehow, I know to allow this yearning its due, to fully surrender and feel it, will only bring me greater, richer rewards…

I feel it creeping closer, closer… “You are mine” the Divine whispers… “Soon you will have me completely…” And so I let this fire rage, let it burn itself through me however it may, give myself utterly to it… grief and joy leap forth…I am ready to be swallowed, spit out into a wholeness where the rest of me awaits, watching my every step, cheering me on with total equanimity…

We are all awakening, giving permission to feel a depth of calling and oneness so deep that our knees buckle and we swoon at its presence… we spontaneously break into tears, overcome with the beauty, tragedy and magic of being human at this most precious time in our evolution…

This yearning has become so sweet, I almost don’t want it to pass… for it focuses me completely on the Beloved… do I want to be completely merged? Do I want to become fully One? A part of me is not sure, not ready to give up being a drop to join the ocean, for the love of Other, the Beloved, is so incredibly sweet it makes this whole journey a blessing…

All I know is I know not… there is no longer any choice, only the full surrendering to this amazing grace…

There is nowhere else I’d rather be…

This is my day, this is my week, this is my life… I get up and move forward; smiling, breathing, trembling…

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I will be returning to India for another 4 week Deepening retreat this October 23rd to November 21st with a group of fellow Oneness Trainers and Blessing Givers. This is a very powerful retreat to expedite your awakening and God Realization. You can attend for one, two, three or all four weeks. If you are interested in joining us, please call me (954-242-5830) or send me an email at oneness@planetarypartners.com.

Check out the upcoming ‘Deeksha, Oneness & Dolphins’ trip to the Bahamas this August 1 – 6th

© Joe Noonan

Some of my friends out in the ocean

Joe’s upcoming dolphin trips & events

JOE NOONAN is an author, speaker, life coach and spiritual guide. He leads Leadership and Nature retreats around the world and facilitates self awareness programs for those on the path of awakening.

A guest on National Geographic, Fox TV and Oprah, Joe reflects back to people that this world is already a Heaven on Earth, and that the tools to find joy in the moment are around and within us. Following are some of his programs:

Custom Wild Dolphin Trips!

Self Awakening Seminars

Creating Conscious Corporations  

Joe’s videos on YouTube
Joe’s blog ‘Everyday Ecstasy’

Join Joe on Facebook

I was visiting friends in Pondicherry, staying at the beautiful L’Escale in the French Quarter, overlooking the ocean from the breakfast deck on the roof, when Nicolas, the owner, who was helping me make arrangements to visit Mount Arunachala, a three hour taxi ride away, asked the fateful question…

“Why don’t you take a motorcycle???”

The electrical charges that flew thru me in that moment just about blew every fuse in my brain…

“OMG Yes!” was the initial impulse…
“You’re gonna DIE!!!” was the second…

You see, I’ve been tooling around India by taxi, rickshaw, bus, train and scooter plenty over the past few months, and I’m still in awe of how it all works… without daily carnage… everywhere…

And, I’ve never driven a motorcycle, not since I was 10…

“You can rent a Royal Enfield motorcycle; they’re the famous touring bike of India”,  Nicolas continued…

“You’re gonna die” was repeating like the refrain from an old Bob Seger song…
But something else was more prevalant, something else was just sitting there smiling… a Cheshire cat smile… as if, somehow, it knew the deal had been sealed…

My mind sputtered, it stumbled, it raced around looking for support, but it just wouldn’t fire…

“I, I, I ….” I stuttered, completely trumped by that Cheshire smile…

Ride a motorcycle through India??? Oh my God, I would LOVE that!!! I felt my entire body shimmer in response…

“But, but, but…” I continued, hopelessly…

Riding down the open road, in India of all places…. the Land of Siddhas and Saints… Hey, if I’m going to do something crazy like that, why not India!

“Um….” I said, wheels spinning…

It was hopeless… the mind knew it was too late… the battle was over, it had lost, and I was RIDING A MOTORCYCLE ACROSS INDIA!!!

In that moment, I was already on the bike, the wind in my face, the road stretched out before me…

How was it possible that I was contemplating such a bold and reckless act? Hey, I love adventure, I spearfish with sharks, I do all kinds of crazy stuff, but learning to ride a motorcycle in India??? Of all places, India seemed the craziest…

Or was it? It was clear to me that the drivers here enter a collective flow, a form of egoless trance, where everyone becomes one and they just weave, dodge, weave…

Still, this was a friggin’ crazy idea! I could die!

The Cheshire grin just smiled its silent smile…

Something was different… the dire logic and rational of the mind just wasn’t having its normal effect… like throwing still uncooked spaghetti on the wall, every fearful image and thought it threw just kept falling flat on the floor…

And then I smiled… I knew what it was, knew in that moment what had changed…

I’d just completed a 28 day ‘Deepening’ process at the Oneness University, here in India, home of the global Oneness movement, and in the course of 28 days ‘I’ got to see the relationship between ‘me’ and ‘my’ mind…

Not only see it, disengage from it to!

If I ever needed evidence of the fact that I had, in fact, learned to dis-engage, this was it!

Smiling, I turned to Nicolas and said “Yes, that would be amazing…”

This was just the beginning…

A few hours later, I hop on the back of his scooter and we head cross town to get my bike… Its nigh time, rush hour, and the streets of Pondicherry are choked with vehicles of every description… I tuck my knees in tight as Nicolas weaves between cars, buses and the endless flow of motorbikes, scooters, bicycles and rickshaws…

It occurs to me that I will be driving a motorcycle back from this place…. a motorcycle… in rush hour… in India…. in the dark…

The mind starts in again… “What the F&!@* am I doing???  I’m friggin’ NUTS!!!”

Still it doesn’t stick, doesn’t trigger a response… just that silent grin…

We pull up to one of a million storefronts, Felix’s shop. He goes off to get the bike, Nicolas and I wait, and he tells me that Felix builds these bikes from parts, and that Royal Enfields are famous throughout India. Every shop knows how to fix them, and fixing them is easy.

Felix pulls up on a bike… its big and red…. that’s how much I know about motorcycles; its bigger than the scooter we rode over on and its red. I’m not feeling very confident…

I told Nicolas on the way over the history of my motorcycle driving experience. A friend of my older brother let me take his Honda 300 for a spin in a grassy field… I was 10, the bike was HUGE… he rode on the back, I got it into first gear and promptly found the only hidden hole in the entire field of grass. Over we went. End of lesson.

I’ve ridden plenty of scooters, rode a scooter completely around Jamaica one day and night with two friends, they both had motorcycles, but the shop only had a scooter left (Whew). I did a pretty good job of staying up with them, even when we disappeared way up in the Blue Mountains…

Maybe I should just ride a scooter to Tiruvannamalai, I think…

The inside smile tells me without saying a word that that train of thought is hopeless…

Felix puts a blinker on the bike, then a battery, then motions me over.

I like him. He’s an older guy, and his face has a warm smile, the confidence of someone who knows what he’s doing and does it well. I wonder if he knows he’s about to rent his motorcycle to a guy who doesn’t know crap…

“The shifter is on the left side, not the right” he says, “and the foot brake is on the left too… Remember that and you’re fine”.

I get a few pointers about how to start a Royal Enfield, as starting is one of the trickiest parts. I demonstrate some beginner’s luck and hop on… fortunately, the bike’s pointed down the side street, rather than back out to the main thuroughfare. Saying a prayer under my breath, my system flooded with a mix of excitement and terror, I release the clutch and slowly give it the gas…

Felix's shop in Pondi

To be continued….

(Check out the trip photo album here)

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Join our email list for upcoming trips, workshops & events – http://PlanetaryPartners.com

Joe Noonan, Founder, Planetary Partners
An author, speaker, life coach and spiritual guide, Joe leads retreats around the world and facilitates self awareness programs for those on the path of awakening.
A guest on National Geographic, Fox TV and Oprah, Joe reflects back to people that this world is already a Heaven on Earth, and that the tools to find joy in the moment are around and within us. That harmony is inevitable and that innately we all just love each other and sometimes we forget — he is here to help us remember.

Planetary Partners advocates, educates and celebrates conscious co-creation on an individual, local and global level. We offer workshops, meditations, events and trips that awaken our divine connection with Nature.

Wild Dolphin Trips – http://PlanetaryPartners.com/Dolphins…
Self Awareness Programs – http://PlanetaryPartners.com
Corporate Leadership Seminars – http://QuantumLeadershipProject.com
Join Joe on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joe-Noo…

“Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God” Tielhard de Chardin

I got a Facebook invite from my friends Matthew and Brad, the Gratidudes, to do the Gratitude Dance this Friday, April 22nd, at 3:33 pm (Its Earth Day! ;)

The Gratidudes are emissaries of joy, and they’re inviting us to dance our gratitude for life on such a global occasion. I invite you to join us!

I love synchronicity in numbers, and within 2 hours of accepting their invite and posting it on my FB page, the number 333 showed up two more times!

I sent out an email that I’d spent a week thinking about…. it was an invitation to share my community teambuilding process with the Oneness community… I cc’d myself, and when I saw a copy in my inbox, was surprised and delighted to see that I’d sent it at exactly 3:33 am! Sweet! What a beautiful affirmation of the timing of my intent! (and I’d thought I should have sent the email a week ago – huh! ;)

Then, I sat down to write a short story about a dolphin friend of mine. Again, I’d ‘put off’ writing this story for the past several weeks, and my attitude as I ‘finally’ sat down to write was that I was way behind and playing catch up…

The story came out of me in about five minutes…. the words flowed effortlessly, without a pause… Everything was there, it flowed seamlessly…

I was shooting for a 300 word story, and when I was done, looked at the bottom of the page…. the word count was 333…

We… are… such… channels… of… grace…

Without even knowing it! Even when we think we’re ‘late’, or ‘behind’ or whatever… we… are… right… on.. time!

XOXOXO!

Joe

Yup, we're STILL sending our blessings to Japan! Click here and join us!

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Join our email list for upcoming trips, workshops & events – http://PlanetaryPartners.com
Joe Noonan, Founder, Planetary Partners
An author, speaker, life coach and spiritual guide, Joe leads retreats around the world and facilitates self awareness programs for those on the path of awakening.
A guest on National Geographic, Fox TV and Oprah, Joe reflects back to people that this world is already a Heaven on Earth, and that the tools to find joy in the moment are around and within us. That harmony is inevitable and that innately we all just love each other and sometimes we forget — he is here to help us remember.

Planetary Partners advocates, educates and celebrates conscious co-creation on an individual, local and global level. We offer workshops, meditations, events and trips that awaken our divine connection with Nature.

Wild Dolphin Trips – http://PlanetaryPartners.com/Dolphins…
Self Awareness Programs – http://PlanetaryPartners.com
Corporate Leadership Seminars – http://QuantumLeadershipProject.com
Join Joe on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joe-Noo…

“Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God” Tielhard de Chardin

There’s nothing like a flow of kundalini energy going up your spine to get your attention!

That’s exactly what happened to me last week, and as I lay there, feeling the most incredible warmth snaking its way up my body, I was giggling in delight!

Not too much, less I somehow engage the mind and somehow try to control, understand or ‘maintain’ the moment…

I have learned so much about the mind here at Oneness University; it has given me new ways of understanding consciousness and ego.

Most of us on the path of awakening know that we are not our mind… but its still so easy to identify with it. Here at Oneness they teach that the mind that so many of us think is us is not even ‘our’ mind; its one collective, ancient thought process that is running on its own. And it will continue to run, with or without us… and there’s nothing, repeat NOTHING, that we can do about it…

Pretty radical teaching for me! Radical and well, enlightening! ;)

So, as I lay there, this infinitely intimate, sensual, loving warmth moving up my body, part of me giggling in excitement, I just experienced…. and as I experienced, it continued to climb…

I’ve had kundalini experiences before, all the way thru the crown chakra, but this was different…. it moved so slow and graceful, I watched/felt with reverence and awe…

The perspective of these teachings is that we can’t even surrender, for there is no ‘me’ to do the act of surrendering… its just that surrendering happens, and consciousness is there to witness it…

Bring it on! :)

Sending you love & Blessings from India,

Joe

Click this photo and join us in sending Blessings to Japan!

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Join our email list for upcoming trips, workshops & events – http://PlanetaryPartners.com
Joe Noonan, Founder, Planetary Partners
An author, speaker, life coach and spiritual guide, Joe leads retreats around the world and facilitates self awareness programs for those on the path of awakening.
A guest on National Geographic, Fox TV and Oprah, Joe reflects back to people that this world is already a Heaven on Earth, and that the tools to find joy in the moment are around and within us. That harmony is inevitable and that innately we all just love each other and sometimes we forget — he is here to help us remember.

Planetary Partners advocates, educates and celebrates conscious co-creation on an individual, local and global level. We offer workshops, meditations, events and trips that awaken our divine connection with Nature.

Wild Dolphin Trips – http://PlanetaryPartners.com/Dolphins…
Self Awareness Programs – http://PlanetaryPartners.com
Corporate Leadership Seminars – http://QuantumLeadershipProject.com
Join Joe on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joe-Noo…

“Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God” Tielhard de Chardin

If there’s a phrase that sums up for me the grand ‘AHA!’ of my retreat here in India, it is the above comment…

The quote is on the calender of the Oneness University, and comes from Amma Bhagavan. The perspective here is that, until we realize that we are not the mind, and that we cannot change the mind, we will suffer. And as soon as we realize that the thoughts, beliefs, emotions that come from the mind have nothing to do with us and that we can do nothing about them, we become helpless…

And helplessness is exactly the condition wherein the indwelling Divine can reach, embrace, transform and awaken us…

Its a radical departure from what I have lived. And while I have resisted this perspective for decades, (including the belief that we cannot awaken ourselves, and that awakening can only come as an act of grace), I have fully embraced it during my time here.

The results are transformational… ‘I’ watch this mind’s endless habit of creating meanding and significance and judgment upon every action. We did an hour of gardening seva the other morning. I grabbed a hoe and began weeding. The thought stream was endless…

“I’m good at this, I worked on a farm as a kid”

“Look how well I can swing this hoe!”

“I’m doing a great job, better than anyone else”

With blisters forming on my palms, ‘I’ think “Look at what a passionate worker I am!”

“I’m one tough guy!”

“I’m no sissy, I’m rugged, but I won’t tell anyone about these blisters (that’ll make me even more rugged!)”

I set down the hoe and start weeding around a rose bush… the mind narrates; “I’m very good at this, I learned how to do this as a child”

“I am faster and better at this than anyone here!”

“I love nature, I have a unique relationship with nature. My relationship with nature is special”

The endless commentary is laughable… The more I just witness the thoughts, realizing they are not ‘me’, the more I am aware of a profound sense of peace and quiet…And the subjects and topics and triggers of the past, the alarms and hot buttons and painful judgments, are somehow gracefully losing their importance… and the simple joy of swinging a hoe,  pulling a weed and washing my clothes is more and more evident…

This morning, as the sun rose into the humid Indian sky, I walked the grounds, enjoying the feeling of absolute helplessness…. celebrating the truth that I am helpless and that I know nothing!

Namaste from India!

Joe

I love the ocean, and when I heard that the Japanese were dumping highly radioactive water into her, I got inspired…

I’m in India in the middle of a 28 day Deepening Course at the Oneness University, and amidst this immersion, the idea of us sending blessings (deeksha) to neutralize the radiation kept jumping into my meditations… my retreat-mates were a unanimous ‘YES!’… and I recorded it. Check it out, its FILLED with love!  (Thank you Amma Bhagavan)

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Join the Planetary Partners email list for upcoming trips, workshops & events!

June 17 – 22, 2011: Swimming with Wild Dolphins in the Bahamas!

Joe Noonan, Founder, Planetary Partners

An author, speaker, life coach and spiritual guide, Joe leads retreats around the world and facilitates self awareness programs for those on the path of awakening.

A guest on National Geographic, Fox TV and Oprah, Joe reflects back to people that this world is already a Heaven on Earth, and that the tools to find joy in the moment are around and within us. That harmony is inevitable and that innately we all just love each other and sometimes we forget — he is here to help us remember.

Planetary Partners advocates, educates and celebrates conscious co-creation on an individual, local and global level. We offer workshops, meditations, events and trips that awaken our divine connection with Nature.

Wild Dolphin Trips – http://PlanetaryPartners.com/Dolphins…

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“Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God” Tielhard de Chardin

Just as Eskimos have dozens of names for snow, and Buddhists have thousands of descriptions for states of consciousness, India has thousands of names for incarnations of God, as well as specific strategies to get intimate and personal with them!

Which is what I’ve been doing the past two weeks here, deepening my connection with the Divine within…

And its a joyful, delightful, ecstatic and sometimes downright crappy experience!

Joyful to hear the stories of Avatars and Gods and the play between them… Delightful to hear how ‘ordinary’ people, thru their intimate connection with the indwelling Divine, became (and are becoming) God-Realized… Ecstatic to feel, as I have so many times these past few weeks, the incredibly juicy exuberant rush of energy flood my beingness as my love for the Divine gushes forth so effortlessly from within…

It is our nature to love the Divine, we each hold within us a depth of devotion that only socialization could have masked. One of the things I am loving about being here at Oneness University is the context they give for intimate connection with the Beloved…

This is not anything like what I grew up with, I pay no attention to the ‘Bearded Guy In The Chair’ who passes judgment and frowns… No, I’m in love with the God within that catches the subtlest of scents in the early morning breeze, and reverently turns his head towards it, his total attention and devotion given fully to the mysterious flower somewhere out there…

I’m in love with the God within whose heart leaps when the ashram dogs sneak up from behind and touch him with the gentlest kiss of their tongue on the back of his bare knee, and how he turns with a rush of joy and excitement to greet them…

The tail wag of recognition is another cause for swoon, and the Divine within happily bends down and scratches behind the feral dog’s ear, scratching loose the crusty red earth matted within his fur…

A dozen times a day I inhale, feeling Divinity breathing with me, and realize yet again how blessed I am to be aware of such a divine oneness…

I say ‘again’ because these feelings are so incredibly familiar; these are the joys of our childhood, where we played in the endless magic of Life; the veils of forgetting something that we would never conceive might come between us and That which we so dearly love…

Crappy, oh yeah… there is crap on this journey too… It is the crap of feeling all that I’ve pushed away, denied and hidden from… I’m feeling it this morning; assaulted by a wall of malaise and discontent so vast I want to pull the covers back over my head…

But I am here to accept it all, and so I surrender yet again to that which feels literally like shit; the yuck, the suck and the stuck… to drown in it if I must, until suddenly I come out the other side, to a day more brilliant than the moment before…

Dogs and God have a special connection... they are both such lovers...

I’m in a 28 day Deepening process here in India… I’m at the Oneness University, ground zero and home base for the worldwide Deeksha ‘Oneness’ movement, guided by Bhagwan and Amma, an Indian couple revered by hundreds of millions of Indians (and many thousands from around the rest of the world)…

I met Bhagwan yesterday; he seems incredibly present, graceful and funny… qualities I appreciate in someone who can assist me in my awakening process… I felt a lot of lightness around him, and was already delighted with the energy, information and intent of the program I am immersing myself in…

The term ‘Awakened’ means many things to may cultures. Here, in this ashram, it appears to mean someone who is no longer attached to the mastications and resulting suffering of the mind. (I like the sound of that!).

I learned a new distinction yesterday. ‘God Realized’ is someone, like Ramakrishna Paramahansa, who is so in love with God, so single-mindedly immersed in God, that they, (yup, only in India) become imbued, infused and one with God…

Wait a minute – that’s what I want!!!

We were given a metaphor… the awakened person, when they get hungry, still has to go and find food. The God-Realized person, when they get hungry, well… they are so in love with God, so imbibed with the Beloved, that food comes searching for them!

Count me IN! As of yesterday, I have switched majors! My intent is for God-Realization, and I pray to God that I graduate; the sooner, the better!

Sending you Love and Blessings from India!

Joe

I am now in India, in day 3 of a 28 day ‘Deepening’ retreat here at the Oneness University…

Ever since reading ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ as a teenager, I’ve dreamed of visiting this holy land… Now that I am here, I… am… in … awe…

Three Angels selling flowers & coconuts outside a Temple

Every Teacher/Guru/Master has their specialty; I have chosen this ashram for the specialty of its founders, Amma and Bhagavan. Their unique gift? To awaken people and help them become God Realized… From what I see, feel and am guided, I am in the right place at the right time…

Humility, Passion for Awakening and Surrender are three of my guides; I sense that the last is right now the most powerful… My heart beats excitedly as I imagine becoming ever more awake to the truth of who we are…

I am a freediver, I love taking a deep breath and diving into the ocean, swimming down, down, down, feeling the divine presence grow in strength the deeper I dive… Here on this retreat, I am excited to dive in fully and deeply… who will surface, God only knows…

Namaste Beloved Brothers & Sisters!