Sometimes life should be like going on a trip to someplace 
new. Not to someplace you may decide to stay, but somewhere you go for the experience that will make you a better person than before you left home. What I like to call the travel of our spirit.
Not always in the physical sense, but like massaging our heart and mind that enlightens us as we pick up wisdom and knowledge along the way.
Similar even to the new year, where we remove those things no longer needed from our closet or home for the journey ahead. It can be like sitting meditation, or even how we come to live every day.
If you are a gardener, it is removing debris from last year, so the new growth has room to take root and grow. Keeping that 
which represents our highest endeavor.
Letting go of that which is not, and even perhaps opening our mind to new thought and action.
Knowing that for each of us we must first speak it into existence and that there is nothing more foolish than living in ignorance.
It is like listening to the same story a thousand times and still learning nothing. Until we learn to find something new within ourselves and creating what is virtuous from it and finding 
the connection to something bigger than ourselves.
In Hindu Cosmology, the Dance of Shiva describes the universe as having five stages of expression. That there is no difference in celebrating the ways of the universe between us here on earth to something beyond what may be seen as religion or philosophy.
It lies beyond agreeing or disagreeing with somebody else’s path they choose to follow. As we learn to appreciate their path of universal love and virtue and learning to respect and honor our own.
The five stages of the Dance of Shiva beginning as ignorance, then moving to creation, connection, wisdom, and letting go. How does this translate into 
something practical we can follow that will fit into the travel of spirit?
(I especially liked this image from the Hubble telescope that appeared to be a butterfly resting in the stars)
First of the 5 phases is creation. The emergence of thoughts and our imagination, structures, and systems… all forms of new existence coming into being repeatedly as cosmic matter in our universe.
Second is regeneration. The connections, attractions, forces, and cycles of life that maintain balance, that regenerate and hold everything that exists in nature together as 
harmonious and unified. How things come together…
Third is degeneration or destruction, how all structures dissolve and come apart. From a nondual spiritual and psychological perspective, this phase is an essential process for cultivating deeper connection and mindfulness through change. For regeneration to occur, degeneration or destruction must happen first. We come to acknowledge that cosmic energy, i.e., matter… everything found in the universe, can dissolve, and come apart so they can be renewed, recycled, evolved, and transformed just as what many feel science and quantum physics confirms and teaches.
Learning from our travels and observing the workings of past civilizations convey universal truths that we are here to appreciate and experience. With our fear the greatest obstacle 
to renewal. Letting go of this fear is what allows us to join the eternal cosmic dance we are to grow into and join.
Why knowledge and understanding of what we call “the seven chakras”, become important to both our physical and spiritual development. Contributing to what Ram Dass and Watt refers to as our own awakening, and our own eternal dance.
I do not like the term “destructive” process, as much as the 
outcome that corresponds to the last two phases of Shiva’s Dance, often called “Maya” (Illusion & Ignorance) and “Grace” (Wisdom & Awakening).
Except, that in removing old paradigms, or structures that we use that define us, we often are left to break unhealthy habits not in keeping with the path we now choose to follow as we are left to create something new. It is in choosing our path we determine both our destination and time of ultimate arrival.
There seems to be a universal connecting force generated to serve as our spirit guide along the way. Regenerating matter to serve the needs of nature so that it continually evolves into something greater than it was before.
This connection has always existed from the earliest shaman until today like what Darwin called “natural selection.” Even 
the Roman poet Lucretius (99 – 55 BC), expressed the idea that nature produces a huge variety of creatures, randomly, and that only those creatures that manage to provide for themselves and reproduce successfully persist.
Even more defining what Emerson referred to as man’s connection with nature. Not so much destructive, as changing to fit the environment we find ourselves living in and modifying behavior to preserve ourselves and the vibrations found in nature and the cosmos.
To those following the Hindu religion, Shiva is the Divine Cosmic Dancer, standing over spiritual ignorance and illusion, helping to transform our hearts and minds, awakening each of us to our true nature as expressions of Source.
Dissolving dream-like delusions of separation, awakening us to the truth of our inseparable connection to and with identity 
as all that Is… as we are here to take the next step to enlightenment.
That part of trying to see and understand what we think lies beyond us, is learning about what lies within us. Why would we want to do this when we may think or feel we are on the correct path already? Seeing ourselves as living in the moment, also means we become like a sponge to and in our environment. Ready and willing to take the next step in virtue.
It is not simply agreeing with what may cross our path, but understanding its essence so that we may better understand and gain an appreciation of our own. Regardless of whatever differences we may find.
Trusting our faith in believing who we are yet to come – as well as – what is central to our inner core or being. Why I love Eastern philosophy as illustrated by the Dance of Shiva… acknowledging that love is intended to be universal.
To what Alan Watts and the realization of unity and oneness 
that Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh shared, and finally what Ram Dass referred to as “The Only Dance There Is”.
It is a kind of New Cosmology, a world view that is dawning now in modern human cultures and consciousness, a fusion of wisdom both ancient and new. A return to deeper understanding and realization of what has always been true… making it worthy of 
the journey or trip as told by… Thich Nhat Hanh
“You are part of the universe; you are made of stars… We cannot take anything out of anything else. We are the mountains and rivers; we are the sun and stars…”
Most people are stuck in their heads throughout the day. We are caught in thoughts, spinning, spinning endlessly. To break free, we focus on our breathing, or on the light of awareness that also exists within us. This light is where our soul’s consciousness resides, most easily glimpsed by focusing on the energy field that permeates every cell of our being.
I like to use the affirmation that I radiate this light of awareness as my 
highest endeavor that speaks loudly through me as well as others.
This light, or energy, is called prana or shakti in Hinduism, qi, or chi in Chinese medicine, history, and culture, rigpa or “rainbow body” in Tibetan Buddhism.
It is what science would call the “life force” present in all beings, the energy of the universe that all matter is made of and that animates all life.
To anchor in this light (what some call spirit or soul) takes practice and sustained attention. One can mediate on the energy field, focus while doing yoga or tai chi, or breathe into the life force while lying down.
Visualize how you are a part of nature and the universe, how (at the deepest level) all that exists is light, and that all is one. That we are in truth, spiritual expressions of nature and the universe, living expressions of both the cosmos and source…
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