Sekhem, Formlessness and Unconditional Love

Teacher: Patrick Zeigler

The work has been moving more deeply into a meditative, non-dual experience. Experiences can change, and something new may arise rather than what has become familiar.

The basic philosophy of non-duality is that you are an eternal being. There is no time, no beginning and no end. Yet this is not the separate “you,” because eventually there is no separate you either. There is timeless consciousness.

It is possible to tap into this consciousness and experience its timelessness. In this teaching, that is what God means. Everyone has their own concept of God, but this is not something separate from you. You have the ability to experience it.

This is already being experienced all the time. Even simply looking out across fields can open into a total, timeless, formless state.

Formlessness can challenge belief systems because so much can be invested in spiritual form and duality. A unicorn is a form. A favourite deity that is worshipped is a form. Here, the movement is always toward no form.

Judaism offers an example of this through its emphasis on a formless God: do not give God a form. In this account of the Western religious sequence, Judaism comes first, Christianity second and Islam third. Christianity moves away from formlessness somewhat.

The biblical story of Moses coming down to find people already praying to a statue shows the struggle with this. There is a human tendency to give the formless a shape. A recognisable form, perhaps a pretty face, seems easier to connect with.

Images of Jesus take a different form in each culture. Patrick Zeigler encountered images of a Black Jesus with curly hair in Africa; in Sweden, Jesus is depicted as blond with blue eyes. These are forms through which people connect.

Angels are commonly given wings because they fly. But why would an angel need wings? The wings are part of the form people love.

When love is connected with a person, imagining their face can bring that love back. The love has a form associated with it. It can seem difficult to understand how there could be love for something formless.

There is a familiar movement of seeing something beautiful and loving it because it is beautiful, or loving it because it has some other quality. In pure, unconditional love, there is no form involved.

A person may look gorgeous when they marry and look different at eighty. Love can remain regardless of that change in form. This is the point of unconditional love.

Love can also become attached to doingness: loving a person for the things they do for you. The process is to keep learning to be in a state of unconditional love, rather than making love depend on appearance or on what is done for you. This is what non-duality is about within this teaching.

Sekhem is an Egyptian word, loosely translated as “the power of powers.”

Egyptian deities such as Isis, Horus and Sekhmet have forms. Each has a particular power or ability. Astrology likewise has different archetypes, and those archetypes are given forms.

Sekhem does not have that deity form. There is no deity of Sekhem to look at. Its representation comes closest to form through a staff, also called a scepter, which represents connecting heaven and earth.

This is the connection between Sekhem, non-duality and formlessness.

During an initiation or a large release, images and feelings about people may arise. Once these have been released, move into the formlessness behind them.

The process can be like a hurricane. It may be very intense, but every hurricane has an eye that is still.

Things move during the process. There is feeling, and there may be a strong sense of releasing something that has been held. Then a point of stillness comes. That stillness deserves attention, not only the movement and release.

After the process, rest on a gravity bed or in a gravity chair. Simply sit and be in it. This is time to integrate, absorb and connect with formlessness and stillness.

The word God can mean many things to different people. It also carries a masculine association, which can itself bring up a reaction.

English offers the genderless word “it,” yet calling God “it” can feel difficult. The same difficulty appears in referring to people without a gendered pronoun: “it” does not carry the same human value in the language as “he” or “she.”

In Romance languages such as Italian, Portuguese and Spanish, objects are also assigned grammatical gender. A chair or a tree is given a masculine or feminine designation. The words God and Goddess likewise assign gender.

Source has no gender. This points again toward what is meant here by non-duality.

Teaching by Patrick Zeigler.

Sekhem energy can manifest physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Responses differ, and different methods can bring different levels into focus.

Before beginning, move open glass containers somewhere they will not be knocked over. Having to stop and clean up a spill can interrupt a process.

The physical, emotional, mental and spiritual levels are one clear way of understanding how the energy manifests. There are other ways to divide the experience, but these four levels provide a useful distinction.

On the physical level, the body may begin shaking or vibrating. On the emotional level, crying, laughter, anger or fear may arise.

On the mental level, there may be a state of deep peace. This is sometimes called a mental reset, where things simply turn off.

On the spiritual level, experience usually involves some kind of form. There may be images or things seen, heard, tasted or smelled on another level. These are experiences that might be called spiritual.

One person may respond very physically, another emotionally, another mentally, and another spiritually. All four levels can be experienced, and different methods bring attention to different aspects of the energy.

A mental reset or a countdown works with the mental level. Breath work sometimes works strongly with the physical level. Shaking and the coming of Kundalini can begin physically, and then the experience can start to move. Working together as a group also builds the energy.

Going deeper into the work can bring a wish to run away. Discomfort with what is happening can reveal discomfort within oneself.

A trigger can keep attention focused in duality. Moving beyond whatever is triggering the reaction is where an opening into unconditional love begins.

When something is coming up, speak with the teacher and ask for support. Sharing with the group can also help. Let the support be available rather than keeping the experience unspoken.

Support can help a process move through, sometimes within an hour. The work is to stay with what is arising and help clear it.

Questions and sharing help guide the work. Receiving individual attention can also help the whole group.

The class is created together rather than following a rigid format. Certain meditations and a way of beginning may be prepared, but the next movement follows what comes.

Learning to teach this work includes learning within that unfolding process.

Patrick Zeigler began meditating in his twenties, waking early to practise. His experience of early-morning meditation developed further during a forty-day meditation in which he slept three hours a night and took no food apart from a very watered-down milky yogurt drink. He valued that experience and wanted to share the meditation. The fasting is not part of the practice described here.

The brain moves through different cycles, approximately every hour and a half. During sleep, dreaming is connected with these changing cycles.

Beginning meditation at four in the morning brings an opportunity to be conscious within these cycles. The practice is one hour sitting, followed by one hour lying down. Falling back asleep may happen.

[admin review: unclear speaker]

Teacher: Patrick Zeigler.

Every night, you enter the delta brainwave state, but usually you are unconscious. When you meditate and then lie down, there is a high probability of becoming conscious in the delta state. From there, you can move very naturally into an enlightenment state.

This may not be permanent, but you can have the experience. During the lying-down part of the practice, you might fall asleep. There is also the possibility of having a kind of awakened dream.

Everyone responds differently to the practice. A little excitement can help, especially in the beginning stages. Eventually, the aim is to reach the point where it simply is, without needing all the excitement.

If tickets for your favorite band went on sale at four o’clock in the morning, the excitement might bring you there at four, or even at three or two. That same enthusiasm can support the wish to show up, to be there and to be present.

This is about wanting to be there for life, being excited about life and ready to begin.