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Hi Sparrow
A question if you are around and have the time and inclination for it.
I have a spiritual background in East Asian Mahayana Buddhism. Zen training produced some world view overhauling experiences in my teens. In my late 20s, what seems like past life memories and connection over many lives with the diety avalokiteshvara pointed me in a direction that was, you could say, more life oriented than emptiness oriented.
Here in my 30s, cultivating a deeper relationship with the goddess Cundi (who seems to be both an emanation of avalokiteshvara and her own thing) has only affirmed that orientation. Encountering kashmir shaivism seemed like a positive flipside to the renunciate streams in Buddhism and reflected a lot of what Cundi had been showing me already.
A lot of this has been on my own though. There is not much spoken of of such deity relationships in Buddhism except in vajrayana and the insistence on formal empowerment and fixed rituals for such a relationship didn't match my path. When I encountered your writings on angels, door keepers and and much else it was delightful to see so much of my somewhat fuzzy experiences in this arena mirrored and spoken with such clarity in plain English.
It is this fuzziness I'd like to ask about - the connection and clarity of the connection seems to fluctuate. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell what is just my own guff and what is genuine connection. It's not black and white as far as I can tell, as these beings and experiences often clothe themselves in my own imagination and respond to my own guff as it is.
Still I was wondering if you have some advice for deepening and clarifying these connections and experiences - and if you should feel so inspired, some advice in general on the nature of this subject and how to navigate it as you see it.
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