Steve Kramer is President of the Board of Directors at Spirit Fire, a teacher of The Practice of Living Awareness meditation technique, and a host of Spirit Fire Radio. He is a student of the trans-himalayan teachings known as The Ageless Wisdom, as well as a certified teacher and practitioner of Esoteric Healing through the International Network for Energy Healing, and the National Association for Esoteric Healing.
“Quiet the mind, and the soul will speak.” That message is on the chalkboard in the foyer of our meditation center in Leyden, MA. We offer that board up for anyone who is inspired to leave a new message. I has stayed there for months. It simply seems to resonate with everyone who comes through … More Allowing Quietude
We pause for a week at the half-way point of the current round of meditations within Practice of Living Awareness. We’ve completed seven weeks thus far and have worked with seven meditation tools. This pause offers wonderful opportunity to integrate all seven into your weekly sittings or to revisit a particular guided meditation from our archives. We’ll be back next Monday … More Setting Intentions
The richness of an interlude is apparent through meditation. Is meditating not an interlude in and of itself? As we meditate we detach from outer activity – from rushing to and fro, from responding to life’s daily demands, from planning, from reminiscing, from tasking. Meditation offers an opportunity to go within, to observe and … More Peaceful Abiding
Inspiration is big part of the creative process that allows for expression. It is a process of collecting (inspiration) and letting go (expression). You guessed it… sounds like the breath! Yes, but it’s not so simple. In fact, it couldn’t be more dynamic and unique. Why? Because each breath and each inspiration is new. … More Inspiration and Expression
As we enter into our 7th week of this round of meditations with The Practice of Living Awareness, we pause and take stock; after all, at the end of this week we’ll be at the half way mark. Hopefully the tools we’ve meditated with thus far have offered you access to that inner-most aspect … More Silence Speaks
As the news of the week rolls out, it is easy to default to focusing on our differences and on that which separates us. And so it is the perfect time to generate some heart focused positivity and offer it to those in need. A loving-kindness meditation reminds us to see ourselves in others … More May You Know Peace and Ease
Heart-Mind joins two principles that underlie our reality: (one) that energy follows thought, and (two) that we are all part of a complex interdependent and interconnected community of life. As we begin to embody heart-mind, we begin to participate in creating a world in which cooperation, respect, and harmlessness move to the forefront of our … More The Middle Way
We recognize the heart as the organ responsible for the circulation of blood. It is one of the vital organs of the physical body and vital to our existence. The heart is our connection to life… literally and figuratively. We recognize that the heart relates to our ability to express and receive love, as … More Looking Into the Heart
We allow for peace. We create space for it. You need only sense into the experience of judgement, criticism, blame, and divisiveness to feel the contraction; separation requires a contraction of sorts, a cutting-off. Peace on the other hand, is inclusive. Appreciation, generosity, and a notion as simple as well-being, are expansive in nature. … More Release Into Peace
It is tension that holds the raindrops to the window above. Tension is an intensification of pressure. Pressure built up in the clouds that formed the rain… pressure eventually leads to release. Eventually the droplets will fall. Tension can also be created by anticipating a future event or visualizing a goal. In this case, … More Releasing to Spaciousness
It is autumn in New England and this year the leaves are especially dramatic. Each day the landscape is made new as fresh colors splash across the tree line and leaves toss about in the wind like confetti then land to create ever-new, ever-colorful, ever-changing ground cover. It is a spectacle that I look forward … More Timely Release
To accompany today’s meditation, I’d like to offer a question posed in a note from The Universe (as provided by the ever-inspiring Mike Dooley). It says everything about the art of allowing… “Tell me, what advice would you give a child who came to you asking what their favorite color should be? To follow … More The Art of Allowing
The definition of inspire is: to fill (someone) with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative. This word is derived from the Latin word inspirare meaning: breathe or blow into; from in (into) + spirare (breathe); to excite, to inflame; to put life into the human body. May it be … More Inspirare
Step 4 within the practice brings awareness to three powerful choices: softening, opening, and receiving. Our physiology chooses these for us every time we breathe. We receive oxygen on every inhale, all day and all night, consciously or unconsciously. Becoming intimate with this occurrence creates powerful shifts toward being fully present in the moment. “We … More The Softening
Flow Meditation – Day 3. We’ve been ending each meditation with a mantra of sorts. It moves us through breathing light into the mind, breathing light into our feeling nature, breathing light into our physical body, and breathing light into our sense of self. The mind, the emotions, and the physical body are all aspects … More Breathing With and In The World
Flow Meditation – Day 2. Are you able to go with the flow? Do you meet change with open-mindedness and little resistance? Fact is, adaptability is essential to our longevity; at very least, it helps us get through the day with ease. Practicing flow helps us cultivate lots of positive qualities – a willingness to … More The Ever-Present Flow
Flow Meditation – Day 1. We begin Week 3 with a familiar concept – flow. We have all experienced flow. Time flows. Rivers flow, Breath flows. The number three has a way of supporting rhythm and flow. All colors flow from the three primary colors of blue, red, and yellow. The genie grants three wishes … More The Rhythm of Three
Tip of the Nose Meditation – Day 3. Where will your awareness land? The choice is yours. The photo above offers many options for places to land your focus as well as many ways to use your focus. You could choose to focus on the variety of colors and shades present or a particular color that … More The Freedom to Choose
Tip of the Nose Meditation – Day 2. There’s so much to take in as we are perched. Today’s meditation takes us to the perch where we notice the usually not noticed. Observation is an activity made possible by stillness. Noticed and not noticed, activity and stillness, inner and outer, breath coming and breath … More The Perch
Tip of the Nose Meditation – Day 1. As the saying goes, sometimes what you are looking for is right under your nose. Could it be the ease of a smile? Certainly that’s right under your nose. It turns out these two bodily features have a beautiful relationship, at least in meditation. Both the tip of … More A Beautiful Relationship
Smile Meditation – Day 3. The shape of a smile is quite common: raised at the edges and curved from side to side. It’s the shape of a bowl or a basin. It’s the shape of the hammock above… it has a similar function as well. A smile holds and supports; it contains and carries. … More Delightfully Held
Smile Meditation – Day 2. Smiles not only make us feel happy, but they also help reduce stress levels in the body and lead us in the direction of optimistic mental approaches to situations. Smiles have a positive effect on many areas of your life and the lives of the people who surround you. Sounds … More The Soft and Gentle Smile
Smile Meditation – Day 1. Peace and happiness can be the quality of this very moment, if we choose to bring them forward. They’re a bit like the clear blue sky… always there, yet not always revealed. Perhaps we simply need to look up more and take it in or allow the cloud cover to … More Start Off With a Smile
September is shaping up to be a fantastic month at Spirit Fire. Our “Deepening” Living Awareness Retreat is one week away, September 7-9. We look forward to creating and sharing the group meditative field with this year’s participants at our meditation center in Leyden, Massachusetts. And the following week, on September 17th, we begin … More A New Round Approaches
“The soul is the core of your being. It is eternal. It doesn’t exist in space-time. It is a field of infinite possibilities, of infinite creativity. It is your internal reference point with which you should always be in touch.” – Deepak Chopra May the tools that you have acquired over the last … More Soul, breathing.
Happiness has a liveliness to it; it creates momentum. When we’re really happy, we want to yodel down the mountain! As we spiral up the emotional scale, we get closer to feelings that become tinctured with aspects of the mind… appreciation, empathy, compassion, wonder, and joy. In particular, joy engages the observer mind… the … More Connecting to livingness, generating joy.
Awareness is ever-efflorescing, as are you. Here we are at Step 14. Blossoming, blooming, and tickled pink. Let’s meditate. Downloadable Podcast: Living Awareness – Day 1
We’ve arrived! The final week of meditations in this current round is here. The secret is, we’re arriving continuously. That’s the beauty of awareness. Each and every moment holds something new, something you’ve created as a result of your conscious presence. Establishing a ‘living awareness’ in your life serves to make each experience one … More Step 14: Living Awareness
Your are what you eat, right? This is a toroidal statement and a truthful one. The beautiful cloud in the photo above is the result of many cooperative components: the sea, the sun, heat, moisture, evaporation, atmosphere… and a photographer in the right place with the right equipment… you, with internet, a computer, and an … More You are becoming.
We are in a constant state of being and becoming. Becoming arrives into being and, alas, we are becoming again. This is the construct of our time/space existence and it magnificently grants us the freedom to create our own reality. That which your breathe into your being assists in your becoming. Breathe in your … More Lighted exchange.
Can you see an apple in the diagrams above? The center-right image would be an apple when viewed from above; and below it, the cross-section of an apple, whit the dark section representing its core. The torus is a fundamental energy structure. It is quite literally responsible for our manifest universe… and the apple. … More The architecture of life.
The torus is a fundamental energetic mechanism. Its circuitous motion creates a toroidal flow, where energy comes in through the top circumnavigates in a spherical shape on the inside, comes out through the other end and moves around the outside to return again to the top. We have versions of this system all around … More Step 13: Toroidal Flow
Meditation is often plugged as bringing about “peace of mind” for the practitioner. This is true, but there’s more. Much more. Meditation is also concerned with mental receptivity. In this sense, meditation can be very creative. It can produce new thoughts, mental illumination, and inspiration. In meditation of this kind, sustained effort is applied … More Seed thoughts.
Conditions reveal the rainbow. With the right combination of sunlight and water droplets, the full spectrum of color comes forward as radiant magic. Sunlight always holds the potential of a rainbow. Today’s meditation reveals the radiant potential of the chakra system. Enjoy. Downloadable Podcast: Central Channel – Day 2
By Step 12 of the practice, we have options. Options are like fuel. They generate hope. Here are a few delightful acronyms that came to mind one day while meditating on hope: H.O.P.E. – Having Options Promotes Expansion H.O.P.E. – Harnessing Enthusiasm Provides Evidence Both are factual. We live in an abundant universe. As … More Expand and include.
The Central Channel is your energetic core from within. It connects the above to the below and the inner to the outer. It is the high-vibration etheric replica of your spinal cord and is directly linked to your entire nervous system via seven energy centers called chakras. The Central Channel serves as the primary … More Step 12: Central Channel
Winter is waning here in New England and only a few patches of snow remain. The sun lingers a little longer each day and the ground is beginning to soften and warm. Soon sprouts will appear on the topsoil, buds will appear on the trees, and green will return to dominate the landscape. Plants … More Upward.
Have you ever spent time in the forest? It is rejuvenating. The air is alive. It is pure, It is rich. Trees are the lungs of the earth. They purify the atmosphere, absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen. Their various processes of giving and receiving also help to regulate water cycles and and build up … More The lungs of the earth.
Expression elicits an equal and opposite response. We learn this in physics. We experience this in relationships. And we’ve observed this with the breath: every inhale is followed by an exhale; receiving is followed by releasing. This week we respond to the light of mind with the ground of being. Happy meditating! Downloadable … More As above, so below.
Human being. Being human. Being still. Still being. Being grounded. Grounded being. Yes, meditation accentuated all of these states of being. We have spent the last several steps working with the mind. For Step 11, we acknowledge this precious fact: the awareness that we have generated by consciously engaging various aspects of the mind … More Step 11: Ground of Being
What is harmlessness? Why do people choose actions that would harm another? Are there actions which may cause harm unintentionally or unconsciously? Last summer on Spirit Fire Radio, we spent July exploring the concept of harm and looking into ways of developing the ethic of harmlessness in our every day lives. Enjoy this podcast, … More Harmlessness.
Happy Sunday! We are enjoying a full house at Spirit Fire Retreat Center for our annual Foundations Living Awareness Retreat and sending laughter, peace of mind, and positive vibes out into the world! This week we are offering choice shows from Spirit Fire Radio that support our progress thus far in The Practice of … More Spirit Fire Radio
It takes alignment and receptivity to see beyond the shell of things. I was with my mom one day in downtown Harrisburg, where I grew up. We liked to go there in the afternoon to people-watch, sit by the river, and enjoy each other’s company in the outdoors. On our way back to the … More Seeing more.
Light is nature’s way of transferring energy and information through space. And oh, how it moves through space! The sunlight that allows us to perceive the natural world around us actually left the sun ten minutes prior to reaching our eyes. Within us, light is traveling as well. Biophotons, which are the electromagnetic byproduct of … More Luminous adventuring.
Have we mentioned the soul yet? Perhaps not. The word soul derives from the Gothic saiwala and the Old German saiwalo, both meanings speak of origins; it is also connected etymologically with the greek aiolos, which means ‘quick moving,’ ‘twinkling,’ or iridescent,’ and with the latin anima, meaning ‘wind.’ Breath, source, and light: we’ve … More Soul light.
Activity generates energy; just continuously rub your hands together faster and faster and faster and you’ll notice energy being generated. The acting of rubbing your hands together also takes energy… it’s an exchange. As we’ve said many times, life is all about flow. The mind is no different. As we aspire to higher vibratory levels … More Step 10: Luminous Perception
