The Kingdom of Heaven
By Stephen Altair
In this letter from Altair, he has taken a discussion with dear friends that appears in the book, Diary of a Yogi, Book 2 – Portals of Presence.
Dearest Enlightened World,
I spoke to my wife about them.
Here are our hearts for you.
Life, simply, is being here with love and compassion, with what is beautiful and healing in our hearts. Life is to realize the Kingdom of Heaven that lies within us, and through that to see the Kingdom of Heaven that is already alive around us, in every person, in everything.
How do we live? Our practice begins with our self. How can we love without truly taking care of, being kind to, and loving ourselves?
How can we truly love, take care of and accept others without loving ourselves? So love yourself, and love your neighbors. In doing that you ARE loving God.
Why is life eluding us?
We are kings and queens reigning over the Kingdom of Heaven within. That Kingdom is divided into five provinces. Generally speaking, we are not that responsible as rulers because we don’t have much training. The guidebooks are there, but we don’t pay attention. We run away and watch television and flip through the internet.
We engage in gossip and rarely deeply listen to what is going on.
The province of the body is misused, the province of pleasant and unpleasant feelings is divided into good and bad feelings (which we push away), the province of perception is rarely recognized and the province of thoughts and consciousness whirls around like a herd of wild horses, barely ever stopping to be still and calm.
There is a lot of suffering and pain within those territories which has not been looked at, so we are hesitant to approach the governors of those districts and have kind and gentle discussions with them.
There is an Angel, a Bodhisattva, a Master within however–an adviser to the King or Queen that has great wisdom. Mindfulness and heartfulness, she says, can restore peace and equanimity in the Kingdom.
The mindfulness and heartfulness we are speaking about can be found walking in the garden or eating at the dining room table, when
breastfeeding your baby or sharing those intimate moments with your partner or friends.
This mindfulness and heartfulness is a Mother energy, who arises to care for her baby energies, whether the baby is angry or whether the baby is sad, whether the baby is happy or whether the baby is hungry. Whether the baby is born or living or dying the Mother is always there, caring for Her baby.
Mindful and heartful breathing is the energy and light of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Angel, the Bodhisattva, the Master and the Mother all rolled into One. You need to love ALL your subjects in the Kingdom. This is the work of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is found in the present moment, in the here and now, in the gift of your own mind and heart.
To see deeply you only need to take the time to practice to be still with the Holy Spirit’s energy, the Angel and the Bodhisattva, the Master within.
Psalm 46: “Be still and know God.”
When you are still, you find the God-Self.
The Buddha said “She who is silent like a gong which is broken, knows stillness. She reaches freedom, where there is no more striving.” v 134, The Dhammapada
When you are still, you find freedom.
We need to learn how to be still enough to allow the water to flow to the ocean and the light to arise and enter the heart.
How do we do that?
The answer is right in front of us.
We learn how to allow our thoughts and feelings and body sensations to arise with deep kindness.
If you were able to see the light of Christ or Buddha you would welcome it with great love and kindness would you not?
It is the same with thoughts and feelings and body sensations.
They are part of your path, including those about birth, life, and death, feelings that are pleasant and unpleasant, comfortable and uncomfortable body sensations.
Usually, we accept some thoughts as good and reject others as bad.
What would happen if we allowed what was in our consciousness to arise and welcomed each thought, feeling, sensation with the same love and kindness as we would the light?
Practice for the Week
Here is a way to begin.
Start now with your breath.
“Breathing in, I am breathing with great love and kindness. Breathing out I am breathing with great love and kindness.”
When you think another thought, notice it, observe it deeply, be loving and kind to it, then return to your breath of love and kindness.
You notice something, don’t you? When you are still and quiet and calm enough?
There is another “you” that nourishes and watches and witnesses these thoughts as they arise like a Mother.
The breath of love and kindness, the flow of life which is without a self, is your true Self, the water, the light. The thoughts that arise are the waves, the things which teach us. The things that the light is illuminating.
All of this is part of your path, all leads you home, all is one in the unity of the Christ and Buddha consciousness.
Both Christ and the Buddha healed. They healed through love and compassion. They healed through touch, through Being with people, through the Presence of the Holy Spirit, through love and compassion.
So can you. Heal yourself.
When you observe deeply the rising and falling of the breath and the feelings and the thoughts you see their impermanence and emptiness and fullness all at the same time.
You see the continuum of life, what comes before and after, the face before birth and the face after death.
You learn about the sacredness of life and how to live with sacred intention and you let go of the illusion that we are separate and that there is any “separate self.”
I am in you and you are in me.
You are the Christ, the Buddha to me.
Love and soul blessings
Altair and Mother
Diary of a Yogi
About Stephen-Altair
Stephen-Altair, also known as Altair in healing and lightworkers communities, is a teacher, healer, and mystic guiding the way of love, unity, and harmony for the
Enlightened World that we are co-creating. He teaches that we are the way and that our freedom to be our true self is the key to transformation.
“The miracles of God lie within Us. We are the Light. We are the Temple of the One Chakra. Our Awakened Infinite Light Body brings all our dreams into reality.”
Altair’s background in spirituality has at its foundations the teaching of the Christ, Buddha, Krishna, the Archangels and Bodhisattvas, and Divine Mother. He comes to the fields of transformation, healing, and awakening with over 25 years of formal and intensive mindful and heartful training, a background in teaching and education, and degrees and certifications in counseling and alternative health, business, and mindful and heartful education.
Website: www.altairshyam.com
Website: www.diaryofayogi.com
Facebook: Stephen-Altair SK
