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Jia-Lil acknowledges and draws from a multiplicity of spiritual traditions and life enhancing modalities, East and West, for healing, personal transformation and consciousness. Its integral approach builds a foundation that may deepen your presently chosen form, provide a spring board into something new, or be the form to which you resonate for a very long time.
The Jia-Lil curriculum presently focuses upon ten areas of study and practice:
At times each of these are presented distinctly separate - but in reality they express themselves in union and you will experience their overlap within the program. Scroll down or click on each of the areas above to learn about them and then go to the Learning Portal for actual offerings.
Body Consciousness and Wellness
We are embodied souls and when we deny the body in our quest for spiritual understanding and growth, we create separation from our inner nature - or soul. Some people live just for the body evidenced by obsessions over sex, diets, and exercise routines, including the intentions of many Westerners when doing physical yoga. On the flip side, the pace of our lives and technological orientations continually take us away from our bodies, our bodily sensations and feelings, and drains our life force.
The result is that our bodies imprison our vital energies through muscular tension, emotions are repressed or out of control, our mental chatter steals the life force from our bodies, and we will our way through life, passionless. We no longer have a sense of self, feel internally alive, nor are we in touch with our own natural pulse - becoming a state of being that feels "soulless". A purpose of the Jia-Lil life practice is to enliven the body and release the soul so that they are in simpatico, thus realizing "the body as temple of the soul". Aliveness begins with and is supported by your consciousness of the body and its state of health.
To increase body consciousness and wellness, Jia-Lil employs:
Meditation is the practice of turning inward, opening the heart, and surrendering to one's Core Divinity. Meditation allows for self-discovery and fulfillment on all levels of life. It is not an escape, but one of the most essential disciplines for enriching the quality of our lives.
The most popular image of meditation is the person sitting on a cushion in the traditional yogic or Zen positions or on knees with head bowed in prayer. Meditation can also be in the form of movement, singing, writing, painting, and, yes, even doing dishes or other daily routines. It is the inward focus and awareness that illicits a meditative state.
The intention behind meditating may be as simple as quieting the mind, as complex as knowing oneself and purpose in life, or as lofty as experiencing the Divine and Universal Consciousness first-hand. The practice of meditation is capable of it all.
When a practitioner begins to quiet the mind, she can relieve stress and anxiety, improve concentration, energize the physical being, experience mental clarity and intuitive wisdom, enhance creativity, uplift depression, and experience an overall sense of well-being. She will get to observe her thoughts and feelings - positive and negative - and at times find herself not only peacefully in the hands of God, but wrestling with her internal demons, or discover ecstatic states of consciousness.
Meditation approaches abound: from a simple, slow and conscious inhale and exhale of the breath, focusing attention on a particular chakra, the repetition of a single mantra, to elaborate visualizations, chants, and breathing techniques, to quietly sitting and doing nothing - alone, with another, or in a group. It depends upon the particular teaching, individual and her or his evolvement.
Linda offers the following:
Cellular, Somatic, Energetic Movement
Cellular, somatic, energetic movement evolves out of our body consciousness and meditation practices. As the senses awaken, mental activity slows, emotional energies release, and cellular memories emerge, we begin to move from within. No mental maneuvering. No techniques. No set form. Our natural impulses take over. In addition to exercises already in practice if following the program, cellular-awakening is added to the repertoire.
LightBody Awakening: Techno-Bio-Psycho Dynamics of Creative Life Force
The energy system is the subtle body that consists of 7 basic energy centers, or "chakras" that receive, assimilate, and express creative life force energy. Arising from the yoga traditions of India, each chakra of the energy system correlates with the basic states of consciousness and are positioned in a column of energy from the base of the spine to the top of the head.
Chakras themselves do not manifest physically, but according to Anodea Judith, they impact our glandular functioning, body shape, chronic physical ailments, thoughts, and behavior. Disease manifests as imbalance in the energy body before it shows up in the physical body and each of the seven chakras correlates with an area of psychological health.
By influencing the energy system through healing touch, meditation, bioenergetics, etc. we can influence our physical and emotional health and the quality of our lives.
As human beings, we do not avoid being hurt or wounded by the unconscious or conscious actions of others or our own. Each person develops a defense mechanism first put into place in early childhood including time in the womb, to protect against not only feeling the pain, but also the pleasure lost during the original wounding. How the child was wounded and at what age determines the character defense, of which there are five basic types, identified by its personality traits, energy blocks, and physical structure.
Most people display one primary defense structures overlaying another or several. These surface and submerge at various stages of life and healing. When the defenses of any one structure are surrendered, the core qualities of that structure emerge revealing the gifts within the wound.
The study and understanding of character defenses holds many keys to self-understanding, improving our interactions with others, and fulfillment of life potential. It helps to identify the distortion of our life force and and a pathway to knowing who we truly are.
The shadow, also known as the unconscious or lower self, is the soul in pain and the distortion of our life force. It manifests as negativity, destruction and evil, but it is the same energy as our divinity. It is the part of ourselves that we have repressed or denied, but still controls our actions.
We bring it to the light by identifying the "mask" - the persona or false self that we give to the world so that we are socially acceptable. However, this is not our authentic self that may more honestly feel hate, rage, and wishes to do harm to others. By denying it we crystallize our life force leading to depression and physical illnesses.
Shadow work begins with knowing that you are divine. It continues with the witnessing and acceptance of the shadow aspects of yourself. It is transformed through love and various approaches for releasing the initial grief and hurt that created the distortions.
Thoughts, perceptions, belief systems, self images, guilt, forgiveness - these are all products of the mind that in turn greatly influence our mental, emotional, and physical states of being. Spiritual philosophy and psychology presented through sacred texts guide the alignment of our minds with the divine, and thus enhance our quality of life.
The Bagavad Gita is probably the most famous of texts to address divine mind. A Hindu sanskrit text, it teaches that it is necessary to take action in life, but attachment to the results is what causes our suffering. The goal of life is to free the mind and intellect from their complexities and to focus them on the glory of the Self by dedicating one's actions to the Divine.
A Course in Miracles is a leading Western text and study guide that is believed to be the words of Jesus as recorded through a medium. The Course teaches forgiveness as a practice to spiritual awakening while acknowledging the love within self and others. Christian in terminology, but following Eastern premises, A Course in Miracles imparts aspects of both Freudian and Jungian psychology and creates an experience through its daily lessons that guides our understanding towards reality as a projection of the mind.
Eckert Tolle's The Power of Now champions stillness of the mind achieved by shutting down the mental chatter allowing one to be present and aware of the moment. Again, based in Eastern teachings, but Tolle addresses the Western mind to help make this shift in consciousness.
The Guide Lectures, the spiritual teachings of the Pathwork, are, like A Course in Miracles, the wisdom of a spiritual guide as dictated through a channel, in this case Eva Pierrakos. They help direct a student into self-responsibility, self-knowledge, and true self-acceptance and offer a way to genuine love of self, others, and the Divine.
Core Creativity is the free flow of creative inspiration for self-discovery and pleasure. It is our life force that moves the pen or swooshes the brush across the paper. At times it may draw upon and release our emotions, and at other times emerge as ecstatic union with Spirit. We do not think it with our minds, but rather our expression emerges from our souls. It takes shape whether we are highly skilled technically in our medium, or minimalists in technical aptitude. We are spontaneous in getting "it" out.
Such expression can be artful such as writing poetry or music, painting, sculpting, designing, playing music, cooking, etc. It can also be how we express ourselves in our daily living - the clothes we choose, decorating our homes, landscaping etc. Our life force goes into what we create, thereby giving it a piece of our soul, thus giving it "life" or "presence" that an attuned admirer will feel beyond any aesthetic appeal. The process of such creating heals and gives joy.
Making Contact with Others:
Building Relationships
To be humanly spiritual you must be in contact with other human beings for spirituality without human contact separates us from ourselves. We might as well not have a body with its senses, emotions, thoughts, and longings if we do not intend to be with and touched by other human beings. There are numerous levels to being with another, but to make real contact with another takes authenticity, emotional vulnerability, a longing for contact, and an opened heart.
It starts with self-honesty and a loving relationship with yourself and grows through friendships with the same gender, and finally as total union with an intimate partner.
Several practices done in dyads, triads, and groups are presented to help practitioners learn conscious contact with another. Process groups and circles will be formed locally to promote the building of relationships.
Making Contact with the Divine:
Devotional and Ritual Practices
To be spiritually human we need to make and maintain contact with the divine otherwise we become lost in our survival needs and personality defenses. Devotion brings love into an action, while ritual calls in a certain quality of energy that is attached to the action. Food may be prepared and served devotionally. A mother can fold her child's clothing with devotion, a love in her heart.
Common rituals are the creation of an altar as a place to sit in devotion and over time builds a certain quality of energy in its immediate surroundings that resonates with the spiritual intentions presented in that space. Other rituals are prayer, chanting, singing Kirtan, the devotional music of India, Native American singing, drumming, and dancing for such ceremonies as sweat lodges, sundances, and praying with the sacred pipe.
