What we will explore in this book is grounded in the following fundamental understandings:
- 1. Becoming familiar with the five energies that pervade all aspects of our existence opens the door to a subtle level of being.
- 2. Energy is an experience, not something we can understand conceptually.
- 3. Through our thoughts and emotions, we experience the energy of our inner world; through our sense perceptions (seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching), we experience the outer world.
- 4. Energy is neutral; our attitude toward it is what determines whether we are open (sane) or closed (confused).
- 5. Emotions—whether in their sane or confused aspects—are a vivid display of energy.
- 6. We each have certain energetic styles, which intensify when life pushes our buttons.
- 7. The point at which our energy is negatively intensified is the most opportune time to work with it because that is when we experience the energy most vividly.
- 8. When our energy is stuck over a period of time, we experience an imbalance in our psychophysical being, leading to mental and/or physical illness.
- 9. Regaining our sense of energetic well-being comes from working directly with energy.
- 10. An attitude of unconditional friendliness, maitri, toward whatever arises in our being is the catalyst for turning our energy around.
- 11. Wisdom energy—the inseparability of confusion and sanity—is spacious and brilliant.
- 12. When we manifest our wisdom, we align ourselves with the totality of the five energies and ride the energy of the moment.
- 13. When we are in tune with the energies, we experience our connection to everyone and everything in an energetic matrix, the mandala.
- 14. When we have a sense of how to work with energetic reality, we can creatively apply our understanding anywhere, anytime, no matter what we are doing.