Nigiyakana means lively, bustling, noisy, like the busy office or crowded party. There is motion and lots of it in all directions. Voices are eager, emotions are high, and the energy can be intense. So intense that Nigiyakana can sometimes move into overload, a bustling, noisy rattle in your awareness that can be overwhelming. Nigiyakana in my head is not always a good thing. Nigiyakana can be too much, like an eggbeater in my brain where lively may become a deadening mess.

In contrast, I also am intrigued by another word: Shizuka. Shizuka is stillness, quiet, peace. Shizukano tokoro is the quiet place, the point of calm. In my head, Shizuka feels comfortable and safe. Oddly, it is not necessarily a place of no motion. In my head, Shizuka is the point where I can witness the motion of me inside and out. In my head, Shizuka is the opposite of Nigiyakana.

One way of describing life is to acknowledge life’s shift between the bustling, sometimes exciting, sometimes burdensome, motion on the one hand, and moments of tranquility which can witness balance and clarity. Bouncing between a flurry of motion and the calmness of quiet, life can seem to be both distraction and focus, uproar and serenity, trivial and substantial.

Though I tend toward moving away from Nigiyakana whether it is in my environment or just in my head, I have realized that part of this busy motion is a drawing in of an abundance of potential. Nigiyakana is offering me possibility. However, my job is not to figure out all the motion. My job is to learn to focus on what works for me in this moment. My job is to find the point of Shizuka, the point where I can give attention to the one motion needed by me now.

I am deceiving myself if I think that the only place to witness my motion is in the stillness. My challenge is learn to witness all of me in all moments. Learning to witness when there are fewer distractions helps me develop the skill and the awareness to not be so picky on when and where I get who I am in this moment and how I want to live now, in this moment.

Shizuka offers the gift of awareness and Nigiyakana offers the gift of discernment. Both offer me the opportunity to find quiet in the noise and my sound in the stillness. I hear because I can feel in all places the motion of my truth. What I learn in this moment, guides me to my next moment with its infinite and eternal possibility. I hear the mountain and begin my journey.

In Joy!

Cheryl

Who am I and how will I live today?

Monthly Workshop for Spiritual Exploration and Reflection

I am very excited to offer a brand new workshop format,

available to anyone anywhere in the world.

The Traveler Path Study Group (TPSG) offers you

a moment for quiet reflection,

an opportunity to explore possibilities.

Monthly Subscription Program:

As a subscribing member of the TPSG, each month you will receive a workshop packet which includes an audio recording of the month’s lecture, a Strand for Thought article, and suggestions for spiritual practice including a timely affirmation.

Two Easy Formats:

The TPSG workshop packets are available for download from the new (hidden) Archive section of my website or I will be happy to send you a CD with the info.

Free Lecture for Members:

Plus if you are in Portland when I offer the lecture, you can attend in person free of charge.

Lots of great information:

Each month will be a new topic, each will offer a new workshop packet.  Something to read, something to listen to, something to experience.

Bonus for new Members:

As a member bonus, you will also receive my new Strand for Thought, Spiritual Practice: A Brief Guide, and a sampling of the first lesson in my very popular workshop, Many Paths, One Mountain.

All you need to do is subscribe:

http://www.trine.com/tpsg/

In Joy!

Cheryl

This year two of eighteen books on the short list were distinguished with this honor!

The New Akashic Records is now an award-winning book!

It is absolutely wonderful to have my literary effort recognized as a book which  is thought-provoking as well as one which illuminates and re-directs thought.  To be associated with the amazing minds of Eric Hoffer and Michel de Montaigne, pretty well leaves me speechless.

In Joy!

Cheryl

The Eric Hoffer Foundation holds a book award program each year for books that are published by small and independent presses.  As a book is being evaluated for an Eric Hoffer Award, a judge may also recommend a book for consideration in the more select program, the Montaigne Medal.  The list of recommended books is whittled down to a Finalist List or Short List.  I entered my book in the Eric Hoffer Award program and it has now been chosen as one of the finalists for this Medal.  Books considered for the Montaigne Medal “are books that either illuminate, progress, or redirect thought.”  Winners of the Montaigne Medal as well as the Eric Hoffer Award are announced later in April.  If you would like to read more, here are a few links:

• About the Montaigne Medal: http://www.hofferaward.com/HAMontaigne.html
• The 2010 Montaigne Medal Short List: http://www.hofferaward.com/HAmontaigneshortlist.html
• The Eric Hoffer Award: http://www.hofferaward.com/home.html

To celebrate this accolade, I would like to donate a copy of my book to your local library.  Libraries have always been an amazing part of my life.  The support that my local library gave me in writing my book was invaluable — I literally could not have done without all their services, especially the InterLibrary Loan program.  This is how my Library Support Program works:

1. Send me email (info@trine.com) and let me know the name and address of your local library.  If you have the name of the Director or web address, please include this as well.
2. I will send a copy of my book as a gift of support.
3. When the book package is sent, I will let you know in case you want to follow-up.

I will offer 20 copies to begin with and will increase if there is interest.  Also I will include public libraries any where — the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, Japan — any where!  I will also be posting a list of the libraries on my websites.

On a personal note, that I have made it this far within this book award program from the Eric Hoffer Foundation means so very much to me.  When I was in high school, I use to frequent the 50 cent book bins at my local bookstore.  One day I found a copy of The True Believer by Eric Hoffer which discusses the psychology and motivations of mass movements.  I took it home, read it cover to cover in one sitting, and had my world completely rocked.  Growing up in Oklahoma, I always thought that there might seriously be something wrong with me because I did not automatically buy in to the institutions of conservative religious beliefs that seemed to surround me.  It wasn’t so much a disagreement with the concepts (though I did have disagreements), it was more about the blind belief and the willingness of many around me to take unquestioned direction from religious authority.  In very concise and powerful prose, Mr. Hoffer illuminated an alternative path and assured me that I was not alone.  That I, Cheryl Trine, was most certainly not destined, willingly or unwillingly, to be come a true believer.  Of all the books that have passed through my hands since high school, my battered copy of The True Believer is one of the only books I still have from that time.  The True Believer is securely on my bookshelf and Mr. Hoffer is held with great reverence in my heart.  To have my writing in some way associated with this amazing writer and human being has to be one of the true honors of my life.  Even now, teardrops of joy are running down my face and cleaning my keyboard!

You may extend even more honor if you would allow me the privilege to commerate this personal event with public action on your behalf.  Thank you!!

In Joy!
Cheryl

*****

Your Spiritual Journey:  your search for balance with All That Is.

Your Spiritual Journey is a process, a quest to become more aware of and to expand personal understanding of both your spiritual nature and your physical nature.  And this personal journey is framed initially by this question:

How to fully live as both physical human body and

divine nature at the same time?

However, in a more compelling way, your journey must also become a yearning to put your learning and answers to this question into action, helping you claim your highest expression within the truth and balance of All That Is.  Your Spiritual Journey is both thought and action, heart and mind, and always an effort to understand your challenges and embrace the best you can be.  Much more about experience and commitment than goal or purpose, your spiritual journey is your life lived to its fullest.  There is no difference between life and spiritual journey, they are one and the same.  With each step on your path, you claim your journey and live your life, knowing that in each moment you embrace your process as a way to make sense of your experience.

*****

By writing space, I mean the heart and mind space I enter as I begin to formulate and welcome the approach of the flow of energy which comes with each writing project I engage and embrace.   Much like doing an Akashic Record Reading, this space envelops me and I envelop it, standing witness to its flow, giving attention to what I do not know.  Sometimes the flow is clear, sometimes it stands just on the edge of my awareness waiting for the moment to move forward — usually when I let go of trying to make it be what I think it should be.  I hold this space and it holds me.  In awe we regard each other, in awe we step together down the path that lays before us both, ready to be and become in the moment of the creating, humbled by the journey, in joy with All That Is.

In Joy!

Cheryl

Here is one of my definitions of the Akashic Records:

The Akashic Records are:

an energetic bridge between spiritual and physical,

a dynamic archive of past, present and future,

an infinite flow of eternal knowing.

an eternal source of healing balance, and

a spiritual practice available to everyone.

The question for you:

Is Now the time to understand your soul’s journey?

In Joy!

Cheryl

Much of the information about the Akashic Records is based on sterile stereotypes which have lost their connection to the central foundation that informs and forms the Akashic Records themselves. The knowing, healing, and spiritual practice of the Akashic Records has so much more to offer than the static ideas of cosmic memory and heavenly library. Repeating these worn-out half-truths limits our perceptions and our experiences, separating us from the flow of truth and knowing that is both essential to and the primary experience of the Akashic Records.

However, to go beyond and step into new understanding requires that you accept this challenge:

To come to your soul’s truth,
Are you ready to step beyond what you think you know?

If you are ready, then now is the time to read
The New Akashic Records.

In this book, I present a fundamentally new and different view of the Akashic Records. A view from the soul which begins by understanding the intrinsic nature of energy and its flow within the infinite and eternal nature of All That Is. When we dare to think outside our boxes, we take ourselves past what we think we know into the infinite possibilities of the unknown. Only by opening to the unknown may we shift our perspectives and engage the deepest part of ourselves in our journey to understand with awe the powerful creative experience of becoming physical and spiritual beings. Are you willing to stand witness and let the unknown past your barriers?

I know that this is not everyone’s path. It takes courage to shift perceptions, especially when the shift can force us to confront our integrity or possible lack thereof. But that’s why I wrote this book. Neither you or I are alone in our journeys. We have the loving support and the attentive presence of All That Is to assist and guide us in this amazing experience we call life. Together we can find the courage to take up this challenge, stepping into the unknown like the proverbial foot off the cliff. And I think you will be surprised. You will not fall. Instead, you will find support as you learn a stronger way of finding truth and living life. In the end, I trust that you will know when you are ready.

What is your truth today?

In Joy!

Cheryl Trine
Author of The New Akashic Records

Purchase the Book

You may either buy your signed and numbered copy directly from Cheryl or you can purchase at these online and retail booksellers(this link moves you to my book’s website, NewAkashicRecords.com. Available for purchase now.

Contradiction in its static view feels like it demands you choose one or the other.  However, contradiction in its dynamic flow is about uncovering for yourself unlimited possibility and infinite choice otherwise obscured by the static view of either/or.  As we begin to integrate our physical experience with our spiritual experience, we begin to see contradiction not as an obstacle limiting choice but as a path towards deeper understanding, experience, and empowered choice.

Take simplicity and complexity, notions which can be both obstruction and open channel.  “Make it simple” can be both an understanding to find clarity and a movement towards denial.  Complexity can add layers of meaning while also being its own movement toward denial.  Is life better in its simplicity or its complexity?  Both.  Neither.  One or the other?

As with any contradiction, the answer comes from following your truth.  In any situation exploring contradiction helps you find the threads of your journey and helps you clarify which direction to choose.  Most often, you will find that all sides have something of relevance to consider and contribute.  Dynamically, contradiction is never just either/or, usually a little of both.  And as you begin to look at contradiction as a journey instead of a dilemma, contradiction can also be understood through the understanding which lies secreted behind the either/or of the static view.  Unseen gifts ready to offer inspiration and new possibility.

In Joy!

Cheryl