Meditation

November 3, 1998

Start by focusing your attention on your breathing. Really notice your breath. Notice how it feels as it comes in through your nose and how it feels as your lungs expand and contract. Take a few moments to really notice your breathing, and while you are doing that, mentally give yourself permission to relax. As you continue to observe your breathing, notice how your chest relaxes. With each breath, really allow your chest to relax. Let out a few heavy sighs, take a few really deep breaths, and let yourself relax. (Long pause)

Settle back into your spirit: settle back into your body. Just follow your breath and let it flow into a gentle rhythm. Follow that rhythm; become that rhythm. Just let your breath relax you. Take some time to notice how good it feels to relax and let yourself sink into that relaxation. (Pause)

If your mind wanders, just allow that to relax you even more. Bring your attention back to your breathing and relax. Become aware of the muscles in the top of your head, around your scalp and your ears, and just gently invite them to relax. Focus your attention on the front of your face. Relax your face and all the tiny muscles around your eyes. Take a deep breath and give yourself permission to go deeper, to relax, to let go. Remind yourself that you could open your eyes any time you want, but it feels so good to relax that you just let go. Take a deep breath and go even deeper.
Relax your jaw, let your tongue fall to the floor of your mouth, allow your jaw to part slightly and just relax. Feel the relaxation floating down your spine: feel it go down vertebrae by vertebrae, relaxing you totally and completely. Feel your chest filling with a deep sense of relaxation. Feel your chest opening, relaxing, letting go. Feel that feeling going down into your stomach. (Pause)

Now feel it going down your legs and out your feet. Imagine yourself totally surrounded by an energy of peace, of love, and of deep relaxation. Notice how your body feels. Let the energy of relaxation and peace flow through you. And relax, just breathe deeply and relax. (Long pause)

Imagine yourself sitting on top of a hill looking out at the countryside. The air is warm and the wind is gently caressing your skin. You feel totally at peace, relaxed, and safe. The sky is incredibly blue and there are beautiful, fluffy, white clouds floating by. You lie back and take a deep breath and just watch the clouds. You feel so relaxed, so at peace. As you watch the clouds you notice how each one is different, each one is unique, yet perfect. Notice how easily the clouds drift across the sky. Even though each cloud is different, they are all perfect. Just relax and watch the clouds. (Pause) It is easy to accept the clouds just the way they are. It is easy to see their beauty and their perfection. Now let yourself know, at the core of your being, that you too are perfect. Just as you accepted the clouds, accept yourself. Imagine viewing your life with the same peace and acceptance you felt for the clouds. Allow yourself to accept and love yourself, just as you are. (Long Pause)

Really allow yourself to feel the love. Feel that sense of self acceptance flowing through you, embracing you and filling you with a deep sense of peace and love. (Pause) When you are done, gently and lovingly bring yourself back to this room.

Take at least a few minutes to bring yourself back. Get up slowly and give yourself some time to become oriented to the room again. You might want to stretch gently and take a few deep breaths. Give yourself a few minutes to think about the following questions:

• How do you feel physically? Emotionally?
• Were you able to accept yourself?
• Did you find it hard to let go of any judgments you have about yourself?
• How does your body feel?

The more often you allow yourself to experience this or any other meditation, the easier it will become. Just notice any resistance you have to the process. Try to get in touch with the inner dialogue, what it is you are telling yourself that is causing your resistance. Change that dialogue and your experience will change. Tell yourself it is easy to follow the meditation and it will be.Most importantly, honor your process and be gentle with yourself. And remember, you are perfect just the way you are. Society teaches us that in order to be perfect we must measure up to someone else’s external standards. In dominion you already are perfect. If you don’t acknowledge your perfection now, no matter how much you change, no matter how ‘perfect’ you become you will never experience your perfection. So, allow yourself to be perfect moment by moment. In dominion we don’t embrace change because of a need to improve ourselves; rather we embrace change because we want to experience a greater degree of happiness, freedom, and joy in our lives.

The Power of Our Word, The Gift of Silence

April 12, 1999

Remember the story of the little boy who cried wolf. He misused the power of his words so many times that when there was a real danger no one would listen. In some translations of bible the creation story in the book of Genesis starts with “In the beginning there was the word.” We channel the energy of creation with our words. Our words are powerful, once spoken they can never be withdrawn. Now think about your own words. How often do you speak? How many words do you use in a day? Your words have the power to create, think about the words you most often speak to yourself. Are they words of love or words of fear? What are your words creating in your life right now? Your words create. What are you asking for on a moment by moment basis? Do you even know?

Our mind communicates in words; our spirit has no words, it is an energy. We communicate with the energy of our spirit with feelings and body sensations, our mind then translates the energy into words and visions. Once we name those feelings and sensations they too move into the world of words created by of our mind. Words are energy vibrations our mind has translated and defined; the energy of words are contained and limited once we ‘know’ their meaning. And words have different meanings to each of us. The realm of our spirit lies beyond words, in the silence of our hearts.

Only in the silence can we clearly connect with our spiritual essence. Yet we spend most of our time filling up the silence with our voices and the sounds of civilization. We often speak words with little or no thought. We learn to speak our mind and value its opinion; we repeat what we already know and close the door. When you speak or think the words “I know” you have cut yourself off from the possibility of learning. The doors of the universe fly open when we say “I don’t know” and we mean it, really mean it in the core of our being.

Beyond our presumptions about life is the very real power of silence. Be still and know God; be still and know yourself as God. Try practicing the art of silence and see what happens in your life.

Making things Non-Negotiable

June 14, 1999

A woman who read my first book Dance of Power once asked me how I had kept going, why I had not stopped or given up as I proceeded on my path. She said there were many points as she read my book that she said, “If that had happened to me I would have quit.” The best answer I had for her at the time was that I just knew I had to continue, quitting was just not an option.

A few days later I was sitting in the sanctuary of a Catholic church meditating. As I opened my eyes a group of children came out of the back room. All, except one, were bouncing along as children do. One little boy was very mindfully carrying a bottle of oil. He looked at it reverently as he walked silently along. I wondered what his life would be like, I wondered if he would be able to hold on to his sacred connection. I closed my eyes and continued to meditate.
The question of how I had made myself continue, how I had gone on when others would have quit surfaced. Over the years I have seen so many people quit when they were at the verge of a major break through. Just before they would have achieved a deep sense of peace and freedom they stop doing the very things that were leading them toward that freedom. At that very moment they were about to experience a miracle people frequently become convinced that they need to do something else, or they need more time for themselves, or . . . the reasons are endless. What stopped me from doing that?

I know we are all the same, we all have the ability to achieve freedom. I am no better than the next person. Why is it I went on when others didn’t? I was sitting near a statue of Jesus and I began to wonder what he did, how did he achieved personal freedom? The sense that I got was his personal freedom was rooted in a deep sense of love and compassion for himself and others. I know we all need to be gentle with ourselves, we need to accept our process and honor where we are before we can move forward. Love and compassion are far better motivators than fear and judgment.

I realized that great teachers like Buddha, Lao Tse, and Jesus we totally dedicated to experiencing and sharing their divinity. In my classes I often talk about the need for discipline and dedication, two words we often hate to hear. They had the discipline to overcome any odds because they knew the prize was well worth it. They saw themselves as God had created them rather than as their minds perceived them.

How had they gotten to that place of knowing. My sense was by making certain things non-negotiable. They prayed and meditated on a regular basis. They did what ever it took to maintain a deep and clear connection to their spiritual self. That connection became like the very air we breath – a non-negotiable part of life. Einstein once said that the most important decision a person could make was whether we lived in a friendly or hostile universe. From direct experience they knew God was all loving, they knew the universe was a friendly place. When I finished my meditation I realized I had a much better answer for the question of how did I go on. I made certain things non-negotiable. I prayed and meditated daily. I had a loving mentor who told me to find a place I could talk to God and go there ever day. For me the place I connect most fully with the energy of the Creator is the beach. Every morning I would go to the beach and pray. For me my prayer was very simple – please love me. I would open my heart and let that love in, then I would go about my day.

As much as possible I would maintain an attitude of humility. Whenever I was unsure of what to do or how to do it rather that guessing I would say I don’t know. As soon as I admitted I didn’t know I became teachable and the answers could come to me. When I felt totally hopeless and didn’t want to go on I remembered that quitting wasn’t an option and I couldn’t go back. Besides not being an option going back could never lead me to where I wanted to go.

I remember many nights getting out of my warm bed to finish my list of non-negotiable things. In the corner of my mirror on a small white index card was a list of four things. The first was to stand in front of the mirror, look deeply into my eyes and talk loving to myself twice a day. The second was go to the beach and pray. The third was meditate and the forth write in my journal.

After at time I remembered to pray in the morning because the beach was cold and lonely late at night. I never allowed myself to stay in bed and do them tomorrow because after all doing them was non-negotiable. Non-negotiable means no room for negotiation, none what so ever. We never negotiate our need for air. We never put off our next breath because it is inconvenient or we’ll do it later. If we want to continue to live, breathing is non-negotiable. My hunch is Buddha, Lao Tse, and Jesus were all very well acquainted with discipline and dedication and the concept of making things non-negotiable. They also said they were no different from us, we could do the same things and even better, if we wanted to.

Do you want your life to be full of happiness and joy or pain and struggle? The choice is yours. And it all depends on how willing you are to exert discipline and dedication and to make things non-negotiable.

The Future

October 21, 1999

The clouds were still pink and orange from the last rays of the sun. You could see people’s breath as they moved rapidly through the village. It would be another cold night. The musky smell of pinion wood floated up from the cooking fires and the sound of children’s laughter filled the air. The Grandmother sat in silence watching and waiting. Her heart was filled with love as she looked down upon her village.

“Yes,” she thought, “this is my village.”

“I wandered for years before I settled here, before I could love myself enough to have a home.”

Soon the children would gather about her feet, clamoring for their evening story. How she loved their curiosity, their openness, and their innocence. They questioned everything not because they were cynical but because they were sincerely curious. That was why they learned so easily. Curiosity and openness pushed them to question and to learn, it was their gift to all who cared to notice. Adults could learn much from children.

Years ago while she was caring for two of her young charges a young boy had asked to hold his infant sister. It was an unusually request so she asked the boy why. He had looked at her very solemnly and replied, “Because she is closer to the Great Spirit and I am beginning to forget.” She’d handed him his sister and watched. He spent hours looking into her eyes. Now he’s a great healer and teacher in a village far away.

“What would you like to hear about tonight children?”

There was a great deal of laughter and whispering. They had been trained to confer among themselves and come up with a single request. After a time the smallest girl stood up and announced they would like to hear of their future. The Grandmother laughed and looked solemnly at each of them. Then she closed her eyes and began to speak.

“One of you will be a great chief, one of you a thief, and one of you will be a powerful healer. Among you there will be mothers and husbands that are good providers. There will be good hunters and bad ones. But each of you, no matter what you become, is part of the Great Spirit. You are not what you do or who you become. You are a light, a shinning example of the love the Great Spirit placed inside each of us.”

“But Grandmother who among us will be the chief and who will be the thief?”

“Why does that matter little one? The Great Spirit wants us to treat all of his children the same, with love and compassion.

“A great chief loves the healer and the thief. Perhaps he even loves the thief just a little more because he is wounded and needs love to heal. Only love heals. Anger, hatred, and judgment only create deeper wounds.”

“I don’t understand Grandmother,” said the oldest boy. “If someone steals something of mine I would be very angry.”

“Why?” asked the Grandmother. “Do you fear there will be no more? Is not everything but a gift to be shared? If you give love in return for betrayal have you really been betrayed? And is anything except love real?

“Remember, anyone who shares anything but love is wounded and must be treated with compassion. Love and compassion will set you free and it might just heal the heart of the thief.”

Off in the distance voices were calling the children for dinner.

“Now go and think about the words you have heard. Think about the incredible power love has to heal and ask yourself which feels better, love or anger?”

Meditation, Freeing Your Body

February 28, 2000

Get quiet for a few minutes. Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and allow yourself to relax.

Imagine yourself standing in a clearing in the middle of a primordial forest. The clearing is bathed in moonlight and filled with the feelings of peace, safety, and love. It is a warm night and the air is heavy with the sweet scent of the earth. You take a few deep breaths and something deep within you begins to stir. You feel totally free perhaps of the first time in your life. An ancient rhythm starts to flow through your body. You can feel it in each and every cell of your body.

You slowly begin to move around the clearing feeling your body. You become aware of each and every movement of your body. Love and self-acceptance begins to move through you. You find yourself moving more and more freely. Your body seems to have its own rhythm and inner grace. The ancient rhythm fills you and moves you. Just let yourself dance the dance of freedom in the beautiful moonlight. Relax into the experience and allow yourself to be one with it. Allow yourself to enjoy your body.

Take as long as you’d like with these images. Imagine how you would feel if you started each day with the memory of having danced in the warm moonlight the night before. Imagine how you would walk, how you would hold yourself, and how you would treat your body.

Final Note

February 23, 2000

When people study with me I can remind them when they are struggling to be gentle with themselves. When they are in emotional turmoil I can remind them to love themselves and embrace their discomfort. If you do nothing else remember to accept where you are, embrace it, love it, and then choose again. Your process is your process. Comparing yourself to anyone else serves no purpose. As soon as you use comparisons you are surrounded by your filter system and back in the paradigm of domination.

Be gentle with yourself as you learn to live your life from a place of dominion. The words in this book will magically change as you proceed on your path. While you are away a tiny being will rewrite entire sections and put a new message there.

The further you walk along this path the more you will realize you are not alone. There is an old Yoruba proverb that says, If we stand tall it is because we stand on the shoulders of many ancestors; All you have to do is reach out with your heart and we will be there for you.

Make sure you develop a loving, nurturing inner voice to replace the voices of the judge and victim. Take the time to develop the ability to say positive, encouraging, and uplifting statements to yourself. I made a list of things to say and put it in the back of my journal and on my mirror. I also bought several packages of colored index cards. I wrote down quotes, insights, and anything I knew would help. I carried them everywhere I went and in spare moments I would read them like flashcards. You are learning a new language, the language of love. It is a language your filter system can’t speak so make those flashcards a memory aid to help you learn the new vocabulary.

I wish for you great happiness and joy. Let your process be a gentle one filled with love, curiosity, and wonder. You are at an exciting point in your life. Let yourself fully enjoy the experience; it is the only time you will pass this way so fully embrace it.

The only regret I have about my studies is that I didn’t allow myself to enjoy every minute of it. I always wanted to be just a little further along so I missed the gift of being right where I was. Life is only a series of moments in which we get to be right where we are or not. That’s our choice moment-by-moment, we can be where we are and enjoy it, or we can be where we are, pretend we’re not, judge it, and miss all the joy. Be where you are–you are there anyway. I have learned to be where I am and enjoy each moment–it is a gift best savored fully.

Some Suggestions that might help:

• Create a daily routine
• Do things everyday that feed your soul
• Spend time out in nature
• Talk to a tree
• Meditate
• Journal
• Change your habits and routines
• Be gentle with yourself
• Make a pack of flashcards
• Talk to your spirit
• Ask your future self for help
• Read
• Set your intent to love yourself unconditionally
• Look at yourself in the mirror and remember to be honored to be in your presence
• Define your principles
• Remember you are a divine being
• Live in dominion with everyone and everything
• Honor your process
• And remember to be gentle with yourself no matter what
• Let others love you
• Love

Forward

April 14, 2000
Don Miguel Ruiz was kind enough to write the foreward.

Susan Gregg’s The Toltec Way: A Guide to Personal Transformation is a recapitulation of the techniques we did together more than ten years ago. The practices served as a guide for her incredible spiritual growth.

Her life was completely transformed. Susan found the strength and courage to face all the fears and beliefs that used to guide her life into drama and emotional pain.

Susan practiced these techniques every day for many months until it became a new habit in her life, until she mastered a new life. Her life no longer was a drama but became one of happiness, joy, and love.

Her gratitude for that transformation is so great that Susan has decided to share everything she learned with whomever wants to take advantage of her mastery. She has decided to take apprentices of her own, to guide them to personal freedom as I did with her.

I am so happy to see how all of her apprentices have the benefit of her love. I feel so happy to see the success of her first two books and how she shares her love through them. I’m sure this new book holds the keys of transformation to whoever decides to practice all the techniques that will guide you to your personal freedom, to your happiness, to your self-realization.

Awareness

September 20, 2000

Awareness is the first of the three Toltec Masteries and is the first stage on the path toward personal freedom. In exploring Awareness, the seeker might want to perceive herself as a student. To be a student you need only have an open mind and great deal of curiosity.

If you would like to change yourself and the way you live, Awareness is a necessary ingredient. Awareness is something that continually deepens. As I release my limiting beliefs and assumptions, I become more and more aware of my true nature. Awareness allows me to see the world and myself as it really is rather than how I think it is.

As you explore the various aspects of Awareness, you will begin to understand your inner landscape and life in a completely different manner. As you increase your Awareness of how your life operates, you’ll make different choices and you will be able to create what you want when you want it.

Chapter 3: A Modern Interpretation of the Toltec Path

(From my new book The Toltec Way.)

When don Miguel told me to go and teach in my way, I infused his Toltec teachings with the feminine principles of harmony and spirituality. I am part of the lineage of what I have come to call the new seers. The ancient Toltec seers were right: we are a spiritual energy contained within our physical bodies. I also believe, however, that all energy is one and makes up the totality of the energy we call God. As a new seer, I know we live in a universe that is totally safe, loving and supportive, and I have found that the greatest benefits from the Toltec Masteries can be drawn from this perspective.

As I take you along the journey of the Masteries, I will be asking you to often think in terms of themes, each of which contrasts the isolated, fearful state in which most of us live to the joyful state of peace. At the risk of being redundant, I’ll suggest once again that you suspend your left-brain judgment as you read on. You’ll find that the path on the road to freedom will, in time, reveal itself to you. Keeping that in mind, the following will serve as an introduction to the way we typically view ourselves in the world and a way in which we can see ourselves, and our world, as loving and gentle.

[A] The Concept of Domination

I think you’ll agree that our society is based on the concept of domination, in which we seem always to be in opposition to something. Domination requires that someone is better than you or inferior to you, that events or actions are right or wrong, and people are richer or poorer. It is almost impossible to feel safe or to relax when the world is your opponent. This paradigm pervades society and contaminates most of our thinking, leading us to a limited concept of reality.

Whenever you judge yourself or someone else, or you find yourself comparing yourself with others, or in some way measuring anything in your life against an external source, your thinking is based on domination. In domination we don’t feel safe so we try to control the events in our lives, other people, or ourselves. Domination causes us to make our decisions based in fear. The best result we get when our decisions are based in fear is to generate more fear.

A society based on domination creates some very limiting beliefs about conformity and about shame. There is no room to embrace pain or limitations; you must overcome them; you must win. The very nature of domination requires us to struggle.

Living in a world founded on conflict, we feed ourselves a daily diet of insecurity. If you are honest with yourself, you’ll admit that you sometimes compare yourself to others, or even the media version of who and what you should be. You are better than or less than, you do not have enough or are not successful enough, you are too fat or too thin. You feel pressured to conform. This type of thinking is very narrow and polarized. Domination can be symbolically represented as a line.

[A] The Concept of Dominion

If, instead, we shift to a paradigm of dominion, our vision of life becomes expansive. In dominion, everyone is part of a greater whole, everyone is an equal and integral part of the circle of life. We are no longer residing in an either/or situation; the whole and the person become one. A person truly living in dominion cannot make a choice that will harm another. Rather than being fear-based, dominion is based in love, unconditional love for the self and all other beings great and small.

Within the context of dominion, the people in our lives become our assistants instead of opponents. The idea of competition no longer makes sense nor does it have any value. It is a totally different way of viewing the world, one in which peace of mind becomes a way of life. Viewed from this perspective, life becomes limitless. We can afford the “luxury” of treating everyone and everything with compassion, love, and equality. We are able to embrace everything in our lives because we no longer need to struggle against anything–we are accepting of who we are as we are. A person is honored for merely being alive; no one is ever judged. This kind of thinking is expansive. Dominion can be symbolically represented as a sphere.

We aren’t trained to think in terms of dominion, so the concept seems frightening to many people. How do you live in a world based on domination and yet get your needs met if you remain in dominion? Won’t people just walk all over you? Well, sure, perhaps some will. However, I believe that for the most part, we receive what we give. When we are loving and non-judgmental, we are treated in a loving, non-judgmental way.

Finally, when we perceive our lives as lived in dominion, the process of our personal transformation takes on a sense of gentleness and safety. As you work through the Toltec Masteries you will learn who you really are and to love that person unconditionally. This will be extremely difficult if you remain in a judgmental state of domination.