It is enough to free your thinking of its negative bonds, to allow yourself to take free part in the creation of your own wishes and desires, and thus to fill your life with achievement and good.
Uell S.. Andersen, Three Magic Words .
I think I got some semblance of an answer today to my question, "Is it okay to want or desire more?"
In a dharma talk from Thich Nhat Hanh, on Love and happiness, I heard these words,
"The first thing to do [when you see self in an unhealthy situation] is to desire to get out of this situation."
It was like "Thank God". For some reason, I needed his validation that it was okay to desire more in regards to external life circumstances.
You see, I am about to embark on the 30 day mental fast encouraged by Uell S. Andersen in his book, The Three Magic Words. I want to test and experiment with this philosophy. I am going to commit to filling my mind with positive thoughts and positive desires to see if my life will change. Because ...whether it is a sign of a lack of enlightenment in me or not....I do want my life circumstances to change.
What do I want to change?
I want more. I want more pain-free wellness, more freedom, more peace, more faith and more full living. I derive my desire for more from knowing that I want less of what I see in my life right now...I want less pain, illness, suffering, struggle, doubt, a lack of help and support from systems, financial worry, limitation, chaos, mess, drama, suffering in those I love, suffering in the world, fear etc. How is that for negative? I want less negativity.
When I use the words "positive" and "negative" here I want to try to avoid "duality" as much as possible. I want to link the word 'positive' with 'healthy', ' that which supports my connection to God' and 'beneficial to all'. The Buddhists use the word, "skillful," which I like. What I want is that which, I believe, will skillfully guide me to the Ultimate experience. I want to link the word "negative", then, with that which is 'unhealthy', that which takes me further from awareness and connection to God, and that which serves ego and 'little me' rather than all. I want to desire skillfully, knowing that though unskillful desire will eventually get me to where I truly want to be ( suffering can lead to transformation, right?) there is always an easier way to get there.
Desiring Skillfully
I still, very much, want to accept all that appears in my life with as little "right/wrong" or "good/bad" judgement as possible. I want to recognize, accept and embrace it all while I look deeply into it in order to gain insight into the "if, what and how" I should change it. Though I want more, I do not want to push away anything that comes my way in repulsion or aversion; nor do I want to strive for, struggle or fight for certain things I prefer.
Hmmm...I want to approach this challenge...not in the way it is described in The Secret but in a way that connection with Source comes first. The more I read Three Magic Words...I see that this is the approach Andersen is teaching. If I look up at all the things I want, I see that they are really not external changes I am seeking but internal...they are things that lead to and at the same time are derived from awakening. Hmmm!
Begins and Ends in the Mind
The whole process of creating better lives for ourselves begins in the mind and ends in the mind. It is a mental game. Do you believe that? Well I am hoping to test that theory very soon.
I stress, however, that I did not begin the challenge yet! If I did I would have failed miserably yesterday lol. Negativity still consumes me at times and is made apparent in my external circumstances.
An Example Of Negative Mental Formations Arising
I got quite ill with a UTI...and ended up with fever, chills, and lots of physical pain. I unskillfully focused on this experience, watering this seed until the mental formation of it became all consuming. What made it worse was that another seed/prompter was triggered to grow from my store consciousness/ subconscious mind. In there, because of past experiences, I have a core belief that the systems around me will not help or support me in my time of need, at least not without a lot of struggle and shaming. In other words, I believe I will not get help for health or financial related needs. So when I get sick with something as simple as a UTI, something that just needs an antibiotic, a sense of helplessness and doubt arises because the only way to get that antibiotic is through accessing the system that I perceive let me down in the past. With that mental formation I usually have the external experience of a challenge in getting help ( As it was with getting one clear cut answer instead of a three unnecessary ultrasound round for this mass I have) . So when I begin to experience the symptoms, I feel almost hopeless that I will get what I need so it will go away and that hopelessness just adds to the physical discomfort and negativity. I go down fast!
Mental Suffering Adding to the Physical
So I found myself quite ill, with a lot of both mental and physical suffering. Instead of sitting with that and transforming it, I had an idea that the only way to end the suffering was to get an antibiotic. I focused on an external factor. After a bit of a struggle and assuming more struggle in the future as the symptoms continued to become more and more intense, I swallowed my commitment to ensuring "equal access for all" ( sorry Tommy Douglas!) and paid a physician to assist me in getting relief from both the physical and mental formations. (Don't worry ...it was legit...used an online service that offers a quick 'privately funded' service option). Within minutes of hearing the prescription was faxed to my pharmacy, I felt a tremendous relief of suffering. That took care of the mental formations responsible for my suffering and all I had to deal with was the physical (which is so much easier to do without all the other stuff). I was very grateful for that service.
Wanting a Freedom from Suffering
What I hope to see 'manifest' (I really do not like that word lol) with this 30 day challenge and a selective and skilful watering of "healthy" seeds is a freedom from such suffering. I am not consciously seeking freedom from all minor or even major health ailments. I just want to see myself processing such experiences with peace, Faith, hope, and confidence that it will be taken care of quickly and surely. I am sure if I did not have this "skeptical doubt" I would not suffer as much...in fact...there would be, in the long run, less ailments to suffer through. I have this idea that faith...in Life and God and others and myself is what I really, really want.
Hmmm...anyway...I will start this challenge soon and I will keep you posted.
For now though...the most important thing is to be here, in this moment, with whatever is here...recognizing, accepting, embracing and looking deeply into what is. K? Cannot stress that enough.
All is well.
Andersen, Uell S.. Three Magic Words . BN Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Plum Village (June 2018) Love and Happiness/ Dharma Talk with Thich Nhat Hanh/2004.11.25
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtPqonJJP_o
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
Sunday, June 14, 2020
Loving Truely
Is it a wonder, then, that love will overcome all, for with love there is no fear, and with love there is no hate; with Love there is no opposition. True love, then, is simply recognition of the spiritual unity of all life.
Uell S. Andersen, The Three Keys, Chapter 8
Hmm! Still contemplating and examining the way Andersen's words feel inside of me. Can we really change our worlds and our lives by focusing on what we really want?
What is it that we really, really want? That is probably the biggest question. In Chapter 8, Andersen answers that question beautifully.
Love is What We Want
What we want is Love...that simple. Of course we sometimes get confused as to what Love is and seek it in the way directed by the movie screen or the romance novel. We seek it in a special relationship with one person ( or a few family members and friends) , excluding the vast majority of the world in that selection. And of course, as ACIM teaches, the special relationship will not fulfill us because Love is so much more than that.
Closing Up to Love
Michael Singer tells us not to close up to Love. When we close up to Love we close up to Life. Many of us are closed up, selecting only a few individuals to love and take care of, making "strangers" and even "enemies" of the rest of the world. We live in a state of fear when we see ourselves as separate little beings lost and disconnected from our Source. We try to fuse back into that Oneness again in many ways...for most of us it with the special relationship. Yet that never fulfills us for long because Love is so much more than that.
Not only does relying on a special relationship not always fulfill us...it causes pain on many occasions...it pushes us away from relating. If you have ever had your heart broken, or have been disappointed by the way someone was "not making you happy", you can attest to the fact that it is very difficult to open up to others in the same way again. The fear of being hurt again dominates and we build protective walls around ourselves that close us off to love and offer only a false sense of security. This sense of limited security comes at a cost. When we live in fear, constantly needing to protect self from further pain, we are pinching ourselves off from true Love. We are actually pinched off from the very thing we hunger for..., connection with Our Source. God is love, thus the great teaching he left us is that all humanity dwells in love and love dwells in all humanity, and all things good, great and small, are wrought by love. (Andersen)
While fear leaves us closed and pinched off, True Love reminds us that we are united and One with all in the way that matters most, at the spiritual dimension. It is not just a feeling, but a way of being. True Love is openness, and the fostering of a widened and immense heart. It is not finite. It is infinite. It is not limited and conditional. It is unlimited and boundless. And it dwells in us already. We do not have to seek it "out there".
Open Up to Love or Suffer
As Singer teaches, we either close or don't close. Andersen goes on to say we really only have two choices to love or to suffer. When we close up in life and believe we are limited and at the mercy of being hurt by Love...we will pull away from that which offers infinite joy. We will suffer. We are closing ourselves up to God.
When we open to Life, we open to love and we open to God. This is where we will find joy and peace and a true sense of safety.
God is love; love is life; we are love. ...The perfect seed of love is within. Perfect love is in each of us constantly seeking outlet. All we have to do is let it!
The Four Elements of True Love
Thich Nhat Hanh offers the four elements of True Love in the below dharma talk. The four elements are Maitre (loving kindness), Karuna (compassion), Mudita ( mutual joy) and Upeksa ( non-discrimination /equanimity). These elements are needed in all our relating with beings on the outside but also, I believe, with relating to ourselves.
Maitre
We need loving kindness as we seek to understand the other or Self. It is not about criticizing, punishing, adding to guilt and shame but being friendly and understanding those parts that we would rather not see in self or the others. When we look at all beings, as well as ourselves, with loving kindness...we open up our hearts and lives to Love.
Karuna
We need compassion as well...we need to be able to look at suffering in self and others and help to transform it. We do not jump into the pit of misery with the other or part of self that is suffering. We observe it from a helpful distance and help from this place. If we identify with our suffering or the suffering of another we will not be able to help. We will be lost in it. It is from the clear expanse of Love that we help to transform suffering into something beautiful.
Mudita
We need joy as well. Opening up to Love and Source, is opening up to joy. It is not a jealous joy but a shared joy. We are happy for others when they are happy. We are happy for ourselves when things work out as well and we share that joy with teh world. The other's happiness is yours, and yours is there. We recognize that spiritual unity.
Upeksa
Finally, we need to remain non -discriminating and all inclusive. We do not love a few. We love all. We do not just love parts of ourselves, we love all. We put aside our preferences and our repulsions and we seek the whole united picture of Love instead. We open up to all beings and all of Life.
Why? Because are all one. Love is the force that runs through all of us.
Love knows that your neighbor is yourself, that your enemy is yourself, that there is only one power behind all space and time and form. (Andersen)
An Example,
I know the world is still reeling after the incident with George Floyd. In my province we also, in the span of a couple of weeks, had two similar incidents take place with two First Nations individuals. There has obviously been a great deal of misrepresentation, prejudice and injustice directed towards this group from the time the "settlers" first arrived on a land they were inhabiting very peacefully and respectfully for centuries prior to the arrival of Europeans. Like come on! Reservations and Residential schools?? How does a population get away with doing that to another and call it Love???
Anyway , without getting into too much detail, I will say that two individuals lost their lives at the hands of law enforcement. Because the voice of this group is so much weaker in helplessness here these incidents may never be publically associated with racism or social injustice. And I am not saying they are or they are not. I do not have all the details...nor do I want them. I just know...I felt and feel very, very sad as I learn of this. I am sad for all.
What I am trying to say, is that we can choose sides and close up very quickly when we look into these situations as observers. If I ,as a Caucasian , do not accept the social injustice, the racism that has been paramount in this area for centuries...I may close up to these two individuals with a "Oh they must have deserved it!" And if I do recognize it and find the injustice in what my ancestors have done, I might say , "Oh! Another incident of police brutality. Someone has got to make those officers pay for what they did." In either case...I am projecting out blame or excuses.
We Are Both Sides
When we choose sides like this we are narrowing our vision and the opening in our hearts. We are selecting. We are closing up to half of the whole picture. We are not Loving in this incident. If we were loving we would see that we are both the victim and the law enforcement. We are the circumstances that led to the incidents in the first place. (In this case from the drug related problems in our society leading to desperation, fear and reactivity to the unfair segregation that took place centuries ago). If we were loving, we would neither dismiss it nor would we seek to blame and make others "pay". We are both the victim and the law enforcement! We are the circumstances that led to this....can we not get that? Really get that fact? All Life is united!! The persons who died could have been us and the persons who did the killing could have been us.
If we got that, really got that, we would offer loving kindness to all concerned. We would compassionately look at the suffering and the cause for it so we can help to transform it: Instead of saying, "Make the racist pay!", using hate against hate, we might ask,"Why is there still so much racism, inequality in this world and what can I do to make a difference? Why is there so much fear and reactivity. What can I do to make a difference." (Of course, we have to start with healing our own minds, which is One mind, before we can heal the world.)
The pain of both sides would be our pain. We would also see suffering in both the victim's life , their families' lives, the lives of the people they identify with as well as those who are responsible for the deaths, their families and the people they identify with and we would ask, ''What can I do to make a difference there." We just want the suffering to transform into something that will be beneficial to all.
If we were truly open to Love as we viewed these incidents we would love all involved, regardless of what they did. We would see ourselves in both parties. We may never like what was done, nor should we...but we would see beyond deed to doer. In that doer we see ourselves.
Hmmm! True Love is not necessarily the easiest path. It certainly isn't ego's. But it is God's and I really believe the path God wants us to be on. If we can open up like this , make room in our hearts for this...imagine what we can do.
All is well!
ACIM
Andersen, Uell S. Three Magic Words. Kindle Edition
Plum Village (April, 2020) Four Elements of True Love/Thich Knat Hanh/ Short Teaching Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKWIeQXCKvU
Singer, M. ( 2007) The untethered soul. New Harbinger
Uell S. Andersen, The Three Keys, Chapter 8
Hmm! Still contemplating and examining the way Andersen's words feel inside of me. Can we really change our worlds and our lives by focusing on what we really want?
What is it that we really, really want? That is probably the biggest question. In Chapter 8, Andersen answers that question beautifully.
Love is What We Want
What we want is Love...that simple. Of course we sometimes get confused as to what Love is and seek it in the way directed by the movie screen or the romance novel. We seek it in a special relationship with one person ( or a few family members and friends) , excluding the vast majority of the world in that selection. And of course, as ACIM teaches, the special relationship will not fulfill us because Love is so much more than that.
Closing Up to Love
Michael Singer tells us not to close up to Love. When we close up to Love we close up to Life. Many of us are closed up, selecting only a few individuals to love and take care of, making "strangers" and even "enemies" of the rest of the world. We live in a state of fear when we see ourselves as separate little beings lost and disconnected from our Source. We try to fuse back into that Oneness again in many ways...for most of us it with the special relationship. Yet that never fulfills us for long because Love is so much more than that.
Not only does relying on a special relationship not always fulfill us...it causes pain on many occasions...it pushes us away from relating. If you have ever had your heart broken, or have been disappointed by the way someone was "not making you happy", you can attest to the fact that it is very difficult to open up to others in the same way again. The fear of being hurt again dominates and we build protective walls around ourselves that close us off to love and offer only a false sense of security. This sense of limited security comes at a cost. When we live in fear, constantly needing to protect self from further pain, we are pinching ourselves off from true Love. We are actually pinched off from the very thing we hunger for..., connection with Our Source. God is love, thus the great teaching he left us is that all humanity dwells in love and love dwells in all humanity, and all things good, great and small, are wrought by love. (Andersen)
While fear leaves us closed and pinched off, True Love reminds us that we are united and One with all in the way that matters most, at the spiritual dimension. It is not just a feeling, but a way of being. True Love is openness, and the fostering of a widened and immense heart. It is not finite. It is infinite. It is not limited and conditional. It is unlimited and boundless. And it dwells in us already. We do not have to seek it "out there".
Open Up to Love or Suffer
As Singer teaches, we either close or don't close. Andersen goes on to say we really only have two choices to love or to suffer. When we close up in life and believe we are limited and at the mercy of being hurt by Love...we will pull away from that which offers infinite joy. We will suffer. We are closing ourselves up to God.
When we open to Life, we open to love and we open to God. This is where we will find joy and peace and a true sense of safety.
God is love; love is life; we are love. ...The perfect seed of love is within. Perfect love is in each of us constantly seeking outlet. All we have to do is let it!
The Four Elements of True Love
Thich Nhat Hanh offers the four elements of True Love in the below dharma talk. The four elements are Maitre (loving kindness), Karuna (compassion), Mudita ( mutual joy) and Upeksa ( non-discrimination /equanimity). These elements are needed in all our relating with beings on the outside but also, I believe, with relating to ourselves.
Maitre
We need loving kindness as we seek to understand the other or Self. It is not about criticizing, punishing, adding to guilt and shame but being friendly and understanding those parts that we would rather not see in self or the others. When we look at all beings, as well as ourselves, with loving kindness...we open up our hearts and lives to Love.
Karuna
We need compassion as well...we need to be able to look at suffering in self and others and help to transform it. We do not jump into the pit of misery with the other or part of self that is suffering. We observe it from a helpful distance and help from this place. If we identify with our suffering or the suffering of another we will not be able to help. We will be lost in it. It is from the clear expanse of Love that we help to transform suffering into something beautiful.
Mudita
We need joy as well. Opening up to Love and Source, is opening up to joy. It is not a jealous joy but a shared joy. We are happy for others when they are happy. We are happy for ourselves when things work out as well and we share that joy with teh world. The other's happiness is yours, and yours is there. We recognize that spiritual unity.
Upeksa
Finally, we need to remain non -discriminating and all inclusive. We do not love a few. We love all. We do not just love parts of ourselves, we love all. We put aside our preferences and our repulsions and we seek the whole united picture of Love instead. We open up to all beings and all of Life.
Why? Because are all one. Love is the force that runs through all of us.
Love knows that your neighbor is yourself, that your enemy is yourself, that there is only one power behind all space and time and form. (Andersen)
An Example,
I know the world is still reeling after the incident with George Floyd. In my province we also, in the span of a couple of weeks, had two similar incidents take place with two First Nations individuals. There has obviously been a great deal of misrepresentation, prejudice and injustice directed towards this group from the time the "settlers" first arrived on a land they were inhabiting very peacefully and respectfully for centuries prior to the arrival of Europeans. Like come on! Reservations and Residential schools?? How does a population get away with doing that to another and call it Love???
Anyway , without getting into too much detail, I will say that two individuals lost their lives at the hands of law enforcement. Because the voice of this group is so much weaker in helplessness here these incidents may never be publically associated with racism or social injustice. And I am not saying they are or they are not. I do not have all the details...nor do I want them. I just know...I felt and feel very, very sad as I learn of this. I am sad for all.
What I am trying to say, is that we can choose sides and close up very quickly when we look into these situations as observers. If I ,as a Caucasian , do not accept the social injustice, the racism that has been paramount in this area for centuries...I may close up to these two individuals with a "Oh they must have deserved it!" And if I do recognize it and find the injustice in what my ancestors have done, I might say , "Oh! Another incident of police brutality. Someone has got to make those officers pay for what they did." In either case...I am projecting out blame or excuses.
We Are Both Sides
When we choose sides like this we are narrowing our vision and the opening in our hearts. We are selecting. We are closing up to half of the whole picture. We are not Loving in this incident. If we were loving we would see that we are both the victim and the law enforcement. We are the circumstances that led to the incidents in the first place. (In this case from the drug related problems in our society leading to desperation, fear and reactivity to the unfair segregation that took place centuries ago). If we were loving, we would neither dismiss it nor would we seek to blame and make others "pay". We are both the victim and the law enforcement! We are the circumstances that led to this....can we not get that? Really get that fact? All Life is united!! The persons who died could have been us and the persons who did the killing could have been us.
If we got that, really got that, we would offer loving kindness to all concerned. We would compassionately look at the suffering and the cause for it so we can help to transform it: Instead of saying, "Make the racist pay!", using hate against hate, we might ask,"Why is there still so much racism, inequality in this world and what can I do to make a difference? Why is there so much fear and reactivity. What can I do to make a difference." (Of course, we have to start with healing our own minds, which is One mind, before we can heal the world.)
The pain of both sides would be our pain. We would also see suffering in both the victim's life , their families' lives, the lives of the people they identify with as well as those who are responsible for the deaths, their families and the people they identify with and we would ask, ''What can I do to make a difference there." We just want the suffering to transform into something that will be beneficial to all.
If we were truly open to Love as we viewed these incidents we would love all involved, regardless of what they did. We would see ourselves in both parties. We may never like what was done, nor should we...but we would see beyond deed to doer. In that doer we see ourselves.
Hmmm! True Love is not necessarily the easiest path. It certainly isn't ego's. But it is God's and I really believe the path God wants us to be on. If we can open up like this , make room in our hearts for this...imagine what we can do.
All is well!
ACIM
Andersen, Uell S. Three Magic Words. Kindle Edition
Plum Village (April, 2020) Four Elements of True Love/Thich Knat Hanh/ Short Teaching Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKWIeQXCKvU
Singer, M. ( 2007) The untethered soul. New Harbinger
Friday, June 12, 2020
Matthew, Andersen and The Law of Attraction
...a seed sown in the garden of the mind shall reap the blossom thereof.
Andersen, Uell S.. Three Magic Words . BN Publishing. Kindle Edition.
But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added onto you.
Matthew 6:33 ESV
Can we Really Control our Life Experiences by Controlling How We Think?
Does everything we perceive around us begin in the mind? Is every life experience simply a projection of thought? Does thought truly manifest into creation and if so does that mean whatever I am experiencing now is simply something I first created in my head? Can we truly change our lives by changing our thinking? Is there truth in Andersen's , Patanjali's and other like teachings?
Maybe There is Some Truth in Andersen's Book?
My head is whirling as I read Uell S. Andersen's book: The Three Keys. I started by dismantling the teaching and comparing it to Buddhist and other spiritual teachings. Though I was once quite impressed by it, I no longer like what The Secret did with The Law of Attraction so I am very skeptical in regards to teachings on it. That is why I was/am so critical of Andersen's book But I am examining it. I am still looking at it and questioning.
The more I read, the more I see that though there is many similarities in the approach Andersen takes as compared to what The Secret took there are many differences. He is speaking to connecting to the One Mind, the Will of God as does A Course in Miracles. He is not saying that we won't get the superficial things we try to manifest...but that they are not what we really want. He stresses that the house, the car, the special relationship will not fulfill us...the only thing that will is our spiritual connection. What we want, according to him, which is similar to most spiritual teachings is a connection to our true Self, to Universal Mind, to Shakti, Chi, Tao and what I would refer to as God. That is what we really want and if we achieve that, everything else is just added on.
Matthew 6
I look at this passage from Matthew 6. Jesus teaches us to seek the Kingdom of God ( which we know by now is within, right...nor will they say, 'Look here it is' or 'There!' for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. (Luke 17:21,ESV) before we seek the things of this world.
He also teaches in this chapter that God knows what we really need before we do and that if we are going to pray for anything (which is probably equivalent to trying to manifest) we should pray in teh way this passage teaches...which is the Lord's prayer.
What is the key component of that prayer?
Not "may my will be done"...but "Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven". As so many spiritual teachings, from so many different avenues of faith, explain...God's Will is our will...we just do not know it yet. It may not be "ego's" will but it is ours. What we really, really want is that connection to our Source. What we really, really want is what God wants for us: Love ( like real love), peace, contentment, abundance of heart and mind...not the Porsche. I mean the Porsche is okay...there is nothing wrong with it...but if we, with great faith pray and seek for that, we will get it but we will soon discover it isn't what we want or need. It will not fulfill us. What will fulfill us is our connection to who we really are...our connection to God. When we have that, all these other things will be added on. We will get the Porsche but we will be happy not because of it but because of our being home where we belong.
This passage from Matthew also reminds us of the impermanence of these earthly things depicted as manifestations of abundance in The Secret.
Do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth or rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal.(Matthew 6:19-20)
What we really, really want is that which is changeless and eternal and is found in the unseen world, not the seen.
Changing How We See and Think
In verse 6:22, Matthew also speaks to the idea of seeing rightly and how our perceptions effect our well being and the world around us. If the eye which is the mind's view is healthy and positive ...we, in these forms, and the world around us will be light. If the eye which is also our thinking is unhealthy or negative, the world will be dark.
If we think positively and water those seeds...we will have a positive experience. If we think negatively, we will plant and water seeds of negativity in our subconscious minds. Andersen, as does some of teh Buddhist teachings, teaches that whatever is in the subconscious will manifest in the external world.
So if we can change the way we think, the way we perceive the world, we can change our world! That is pretty powerful stuff. Change the idea of a thing, and you change the thing. It is that simple. (Uell S. Andersen, Loc 294)
If things on the outside of us are not perfect and maybe not the way we would prefer them to be right now...it is because of the way we are thinking. We can, according to Andersen, change them.
Of course, the primary objective is to first accept and tap into what God Wills here. This present moment imperfection, challenge, postponement in getting what we want, could be divine will...but it doesn't mean that it will always be like that. Nothing is permanent, right? Not even our thoughts or experiences...that means challenging times are not permanent. They may serve a purpose to help us get closer to what we really want which is what God wants for us...so we do our best to embrace our suffering nonjudgmentally as part of our big, beautiful Life. Then we work at changing the thought process by watering those seeds of joy and happiness.
Of course there is much, much more to it than that. As I have mentioned before, there is a big difference between a thought in the conscious mind and a core belief nestled in the subconscious. The conscious mind plants the seeds in the subconscious and it is up to us if we water those seeds or not. If we water the negative, we will have the negative show up in our lives and if we water the positive, we will have the positive show up. Do you believe that?
Anyway...we will talk a little more about thought, belief and hope and faith next time. For now ...just ponder this possibility...that we can control our lives by controlling our thinking. Hmmm!
All is well.
Andersen, Uell S.. Three Magic Words . BN Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Bible Gateway[f]https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+6&version=ESV
Andersen, Uell S.. Three Magic Words . BN Publishing. Kindle Edition.
But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added onto you.
Matthew 6:33 ESV
Can we Really Control our Life Experiences by Controlling How We Think?
Does everything we perceive around us begin in the mind? Is every life experience simply a projection of thought? Does thought truly manifest into creation and if so does that mean whatever I am experiencing now is simply something I first created in my head? Can we truly change our lives by changing our thinking? Is there truth in Andersen's , Patanjali's and other like teachings?
Maybe There is Some Truth in Andersen's Book?
My head is whirling as I read Uell S. Andersen's book: The Three Keys. I started by dismantling the teaching and comparing it to Buddhist and other spiritual teachings. Though I was once quite impressed by it, I no longer like what The Secret did with The Law of Attraction so I am very skeptical in regards to teachings on it. That is why I was/am so critical of Andersen's book But I am examining it. I am still looking at it and questioning.
The more I read, the more I see that though there is many similarities in the approach Andersen takes as compared to what The Secret took there are many differences. He is speaking to connecting to the One Mind, the Will of God as does A Course in Miracles. He is not saying that we won't get the superficial things we try to manifest...but that they are not what we really want. He stresses that the house, the car, the special relationship will not fulfill us...the only thing that will is our spiritual connection. What we want, according to him, which is similar to most spiritual teachings is a connection to our true Self, to Universal Mind, to Shakti, Chi, Tao and what I would refer to as God. That is what we really want and if we achieve that, everything else is just added on.
Matthew 6
I look at this passage from Matthew 6. Jesus teaches us to seek the Kingdom of God ( which we know by now is within, right...nor will they say, 'Look here it is' or 'There!' for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. (Luke 17:21,ESV) before we seek the things of this world.
He also teaches in this chapter that God knows what we really need before we do and that if we are going to pray for anything (which is probably equivalent to trying to manifest) we should pray in teh way this passage teaches...which is the Lord's prayer.
What is the key component of that prayer?
Not "may my will be done"...but "Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven". As so many spiritual teachings, from so many different avenues of faith, explain...God's Will is our will...we just do not know it yet. It may not be "ego's" will but it is ours. What we really, really want is that connection to our Source. What we really, really want is what God wants for us: Love ( like real love), peace, contentment, abundance of heart and mind...not the Porsche. I mean the Porsche is okay...there is nothing wrong with it...but if we, with great faith pray and seek for that, we will get it but we will soon discover it isn't what we want or need. It will not fulfill us. What will fulfill us is our connection to who we really are...our connection to God. When we have that, all these other things will be added on. We will get the Porsche but we will be happy not because of it but because of our being home where we belong.
This passage from Matthew also reminds us of the impermanence of these earthly things depicted as manifestations of abundance in The Secret.
Do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth or rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal.(Matthew 6:19-20)
What we really, really want is that which is changeless and eternal and is found in the unseen world, not the seen.
Changing How We See and Think
In verse 6:22, Matthew also speaks to the idea of seeing rightly and how our perceptions effect our well being and the world around us. If the eye which is the mind's view is healthy and positive ...we, in these forms, and the world around us will be light. If the eye which is also our thinking is unhealthy or negative, the world will be dark.
If we think positively and water those seeds...we will have a positive experience. If we think negatively, we will plant and water seeds of negativity in our subconscious minds. Andersen, as does some of teh Buddhist teachings, teaches that whatever is in the subconscious will manifest in the external world.
So if we can change the way we think, the way we perceive the world, we can change our world! That is pretty powerful stuff. Change the idea of a thing, and you change the thing. It is that simple. (Uell S. Andersen, Loc 294)
If things on the outside of us are not perfect and maybe not the way we would prefer them to be right now...it is because of the way we are thinking. We can, according to Andersen, change them.
Of course, the primary objective is to first accept and tap into what God Wills here. This present moment imperfection, challenge, postponement in getting what we want, could be divine will...but it doesn't mean that it will always be like that. Nothing is permanent, right? Not even our thoughts or experiences...that means challenging times are not permanent. They may serve a purpose to help us get closer to what we really want which is what God wants for us...so we do our best to embrace our suffering nonjudgmentally as part of our big, beautiful Life. Then we work at changing the thought process by watering those seeds of joy and happiness.
Of course there is much, much more to it than that. As I have mentioned before, there is a big difference between a thought in the conscious mind and a core belief nestled in the subconscious. The conscious mind plants the seeds in the subconscious and it is up to us if we water those seeds or not. If we water the negative, we will have the negative show up in our lives and if we water the positive, we will have the positive show up. Do you believe that?
Anyway...we will talk a little more about thought, belief and hope and faith next time. For now ...just ponder this possibility...that we can control our lives by controlling our thinking. Hmmm!
All is well.
Andersen, Uell S.. Three Magic Words . BN Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Bible Gateway[f]https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+6&version=ESV
Thursday, June 11, 2020
Now What?
Now what?
So I am here.
I can finally breathe.
I made it.
I stand on the podium
to receive my reward,
a reward
I used every moment
behind me
as a means to get.
I worked hard.
I sacrificed much.
I was better than.
I did more.
I achieved great things
and now
they look up at me
with envy in their eyes.
This is winning.
This is succeeding.
This is getting there...
There?
I am not getting anywhere.
I am here.
Here is a strange place to be.
It is done.
I did it.
I feel antsy as I bend my head
to receive this cold and lifeless thing.
The medal is heavy around my neck,
the handshake from the deliverer,
quick and impersonal.
The crowd has dropped their eyes
and seem bored as they
await my country's song of triumph
to end.
They are looking sheepishly, enviously
over at the others
now standing in line
to take my place up here.
I am ushered off
with a half hearted applause
while the new winner
is ushered in with cheers.
With a sinking heart,
I turn back to look at what was.
Is it really over?
Now what?
I must get it back.
I must worker harder,
sacrifice more,
be much better than.
I must use every moment
ahead of me
as a means
to get back up there again.
If my life is going to matter,
I must "do" whatever I can
to get and keep what
is mine.
© Dale-Lyn (pen), June, 2020
The Antsy Feeling of " Now What?"
I am certainly not climbing up onto any podiums these days :) but I do have this antsy feeling of "Now what?" . I still have this ingrained and deeply conditioned idea that in order to be enough I must do and keep doing. Right now, despite the fact that the world around me is just stepping gingerly back into some semblance of normal after a Pandemic shutdown...I have many, many self imposed projects on the go.
My writing projects...which are too many to count seem endless and scattered. I am trying to submit some old stuff, finish some started stuff and new stuff in the forms of idea or poetry just keeps coming to the page. I am not focused enough to finish one thing...to give it my devoted attention...Like a kid with ADHD, I am pulled here, then here and then there.
I see so many other things, besides writing, that need to get done...including parenting stuff I probably have no real business in. There is yoga and trying to create new sequences and reopen classes ( two students at a time), my videos, my studying and renewal processes. There is my photography...I picked up the camera once and I am hooked again...feeling that pull to get out there and capture the world. There is my own "dharma" practice...which to me means my need to examine and study Life and my mind. (My priority these days) There is social obligations and now that offices are opening up again I have to re-address my health issues to keep worried individuals off my case. I broke a back tooth again ( 4th time) because of my jaw clenching and it hurts like &*^..I have to get that looked after. And there is this blog which seems like one of the easiest things for me to do.
The Busy Minds' Impossible "To-Do" List
My busy mind is creating long extensive lists of things I have not finished and that need to be dealt with .."now".
It is a chaotic and impossible list to follow. I am so glad I am at the point of my waking up that I do not feel the need to follow my mind's direction...that I can sit back and just watch and question what it is doing and why?
I also know that constant doing is usually just a distraction from being. For some reason ,I am resisting simply sitting and being . The mind is bullying me, trying to make me feel guilty about not doing enough so I "keep busy" and not settle in the present moment. The egoic mind doesn't like my present moment...is judging it as unpleasant and something to be avoided. That is all the more reason...I now realize...I need to sit and see what is going on in that head of my mine. :)
So when I ask myself the question, "What now?"...I can simply say..."Stop! Breathe, be aware of this moment and everything in it...body sensation, surrounding, what my senses are picking up...just be here. Don't use this moment to "do"... as a means to get up there somewhere. This is it. Notice all the things in it that make it worth being in...all those things that too often go unnoticed, like the lilacs in front of me, and how beautiful they smell...filling my whole house with that sweetness...and behind that is the smell of fresh baked bread that I just took out of the oven. I can hear the robins singing so beautifully out there and the wind through the trees. I can feel my body...even the tooth ache which makes me aware I am alive...and when the pain goes I rejoice in that ( it comes and goes). I notice and pay attention to the pain being there and not being there. There is my tea and the feel of the cup in my hand...my pets around me. It is just perfect...here and now...even though it is far from perfect. It is not a matter of being good or bad...either/ or...but... both/ and. It's perfect and it's imperfect. Hmmm!
Instead of listening to the mind and attempting to appease its insane wishes to do everything it is telling me I must do, I can just sit, get in touch with that stillness and be in this moment. I will be inspired, when the time comes, to do what needs to be done and I will be doing it from a much better place than "What now"? I sat down here this morning and asked my inner self what it wants me to write next...and that poem popped out. Hmmm! Go figure!
Anyway, I am rambling.
All is well.
Inspired by:
Eckhart Tolle ( June 10, 2020) Being at Peace/The Present Moment. Eckhart Teachings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-HWfAZlAbI
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
Craving
Crave for a thing and you will get it. Renounce the craving, the object will follow you by itself.
Swami Sivananda (Brainy Quote)
I am still working on connections and understanding this idea of wanting. I was surprised yesterday to discover from the dharma talk I listened to that , "desire" was actually the first of the three realms in which a person can be reborn according to Buddhist and Hindu tradition. Of course, according to these beliefs a person is said to reincarnate and reincarnate until they reach full enlightenment in a life time. Within the "Desire Realm" are said to be several sub realms or "Lokas" that a person can be born into...from that of much too comfortable Gods, to envious warriors, hungry ghosts, angry, aggressive hellions, stupid, ignorant animals and finally doubting, passionate and desiring humans. The point is...that when a person is reborn into a "Desire Realm' they are not yet fully enlightened. The closest to nirvana would be the human realm if one is able to transform passion, doubt and desire into faith, that is. (O'Brien, 2018)
Whether the Three realms are interpreted literally as a text on cosmology or as a view of inner evolution, they can teach us a lot about our own individual desire. Desire is equated with a lack of wakefulness, wisdom, truth achieved in a life time. All of these loosely depict the human journey, do they not? For those few of us, who have little to no suffering in our lives...who get born into states of advantage and power we can often be so comfortable in that state, that we see no need to enlighten. We may erroneously see ourselves as already enlightened beings, "special" and "chosen". Or we may be warriors, threatened by the accomplishments of others and in our envy seek to attack so we can have what they have. So ensnared by our envy and our need to have what the other has here on this plane we do not have the time or energy to search for a way out through awakening. (I will speak to the Hungry Ghost realm in the next paragraph). We can be trapped by the fires of hell and anger leading us to attack aggressively others because of this anger. This fiery anger is so consuming we cannot see beyond it to the peace nirvana would offer. Or we can be ignorant animals...stupidly believing this is all there is. Then as humans...we must transform our doubt, passion and desire into something that will help us reach enlightenment.
One of the sub realms described in ancient Buddhist texts that graphically depicts how "desire' prevents someone from reaching Nirvana and putting an end to samsara...the endless wheel of birth, rebirth, and suffering, once and for all is the third. In the "Hungry Ghost'' realm, beings are reborn into entities that have a large hungry belly and only a pinhole for a mouth and a long narrow neck not equipped for swallowing. This image creates a wonderful allegory to human craving which can lead us on a fruitless and ceaseless journey of seeking to attain enough to put an end to a hunger and thirst we can just not satisfied by external means. This is the realm where we see addiction, obsession and compulsion.
I guess what some of the Buddhist and Yogic texts are alluding to, is that desire can lead us on an endless search to attain more from the external world, that will only take us farther away from our true purpose here...to awaken. Is that not what so many other teachings express?
All these teachings reinforce that what we really, really want is to awaken and go home, whether we know it or not.
Hmm!
All is well!
O'Brien, Barbara ( 2018) Six Realms of Desire. Learn Religions.Org. https://www.learnreligions.com/the-realms-of-desire-449740
Plum Village ( June 2019) Eight Realizations of Great Beings/dharma talk from Br. Phap Hai.Deer Park. Part 4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw8dXB5SylI
Swami Sivananda (Brainy Quote)
I am still working on connections and understanding this idea of wanting. I was surprised yesterday to discover from the dharma talk I listened to that , "desire" was actually the first of the three realms in which a person can be reborn according to Buddhist and Hindu tradition. Of course, according to these beliefs a person is said to reincarnate and reincarnate until they reach full enlightenment in a life time. Within the "Desire Realm" are said to be several sub realms or "Lokas" that a person can be born into...from that of much too comfortable Gods, to envious warriors, hungry ghosts, angry, aggressive hellions, stupid, ignorant animals and finally doubting, passionate and desiring humans. The point is...that when a person is reborn into a "Desire Realm' they are not yet fully enlightened. The closest to nirvana would be the human realm if one is able to transform passion, doubt and desire into faith, that is. (O'Brien, 2018)
Whether the Three realms are interpreted literally as a text on cosmology or as a view of inner evolution, they can teach us a lot about our own individual desire. Desire is equated with a lack of wakefulness, wisdom, truth achieved in a life time. All of these loosely depict the human journey, do they not? For those few of us, who have little to no suffering in our lives...who get born into states of advantage and power we can often be so comfortable in that state, that we see no need to enlighten. We may erroneously see ourselves as already enlightened beings, "special" and "chosen". Or we may be warriors, threatened by the accomplishments of others and in our envy seek to attack so we can have what they have. So ensnared by our envy and our need to have what the other has here on this plane we do not have the time or energy to search for a way out through awakening. (I will speak to the Hungry Ghost realm in the next paragraph). We can be trapped by the fires of hell and anger leading us to attack aggressively others because of this anger. This fiery anger is so consuming we cannot see beyond it to the peace nirvana would offer. Or we can be ignorant animals...stupidly believing this is all there is. Then as humans...we must transform our doubt, passion and desire into something that will help us reach enlightenment.
One of the sub realms described in ancient Buddhist texts that graphically depicts how "desire' prevents someone from reaching Nirvana and putting an end to samsara...the endless wheel of birth, rebirth, and suffering, once and for all is the third. In the "Hungry Ghost'' realm, beings are reborn into entities that have a large hungry belly and only a pinhole for a mouth and a long narrow neck not equipped for swallowing. This image creates a wonderful allegory to human craving which can lead us on a fruitless and ceaseless journey of seeking to attain enough to put an end to a hunger and thirst we can just not satisfied by external means. This is the realm where we see addiction, obsession and compulsion.
I guess what some of the Buddhist and Yogic texts are alluding to, is that desire can lead us on an endless search to attain more from the external world, that will only take us farther away from our true purpose here...to awaken. Is that not what so many other teachings express?
All these teachings reinforce that what we really, really want is to awaken and go home, whether we know it or not.
Hmm!
All is well!
O'Brien, Barbara ( 2018) Six Realms of Desire. Learn Religions.Org. https://www.learnreligions.com/the-realms-of-desire-449740
Plum Village ( June 2019) Eight Realizations of Great Beings/dharma talk from Br. Phap Hai.Deer Park. Part 4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw8dXB5SylI
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Teaching and Learning
Teaching and learning are your greatest strengths now, because they enable you to change your mind and help others to change theirs.
ACIM-T-4:I:4:1
Egoless Teachers
Okay...back to what I wrote yesterday. I always caution to be weary of a teacher's motivation. Even the greatest teacher, who is still wrapped in an ego, can lose their sense of purpose. Ego can take hold and allow the teacher to "use" the student for their own purposes. We see that in many so called "cults".
There are vey, very few "egoless" teachers out there. The poem reflects the presence of a true egoless teacher in our lives...one encased in many forms , coming from different traditions, with different verbal descriptions and stories reflecting the culture of many different times but with one thing in common...direct connection with the Divine Truth. ( I know that could get me in trouble with those who worship the separate form of a Teacher).
One Truth/One Teacher?
Words from these teachers are encapsulated in doctrines and scriptures that we follow as the Truth...We identify with each variation and interpretation as "our separate truth" and "the 'right' truth" but...I honestly believe, there is just One Truth in all of it... so much of the One Uniting Truth the teachings were pointing to gets lost in the translation and interpretation. (And again that would be considered blasphemous to many). I don't mean to offend or diminish anyone's belief systems...I am just compelled to look into this possibility, to question and to explore because I am "not sure" about anything anymore. Yet I feel so very compelled to look for that One Uniting Truth in all faiths.
I no longer identify with one belief system. Like so many are gender-fluid these days, I am Faith - fluid. And I have no idea of why or how I got here really...but I am. I don't know why I write what I write on this blog...how or why I come here everyday. It baffles me. I just know that I have to be here.
I also need to restate that I have no grandiose ideas that I am an expert. I am somewhat of a teacher only because I am a learner. I teach to learn and I learn to teach. To me, they go hand and hand. And I am far, far from egoless at this time. So...do not for a second ...put your faith blindly in what I have to say here...please! I am not sure about anything. If something I have written resonates a bit...explore within yourself why it resonates. I would also encourage you to check out the references I place below most entries...to check in with the real experts, okay?
Paths?
There are three paths or vehicles to understanding Truth, according to the Buddhist teachings: The small, medium and Great paths.
In the small path, which is also called the King-like path, the learner is self-motivated and desires to become enlightened first. In the medium path, or the "Ferry-Keeper" path, the learner wishes to help others cross over to understanding while they too awaken. ( I believe, that is where I am). And the Great Path, is a path that transcends the paradox of Self and other. If I learn, all learn. If I awaken...all awaken. ACIM speaks to this as well. Each of us is the light of the world, and by joining our minds in this light we proclaim the Kingdom of God together and as one. (ACIM-T-6:II:13:5).
For the most part, I am a medium vehicle...on the medium path. Where are you?
Anyway, so much to write about because there is so much I am learning . I do not want to "stuffocate" you. (That is another cool word I heard from the link below.) I will be back.
All is well!
ACIM
Plum Village ( June 2019) Eight Realizations of Great Beings/dharma talk from Br. Phap Hai.Deer Park. Part 4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw8dXB5SylI
ACIM-T-4:I:4:1
Egoless Teachers
Okay...back to what I wrote yesterday. I always caution to be weary of a teacher's motivation. Even the greatest teacher, who is still wrapped in an ego, can lose their sense of purpose. Ego can take hold and allow the teacher to "use" the student for their own purposes. We see that in many so called "cults".
There are vey, very few "egoless" teachers out there. The poem reflects the presence of a true egoless teacher in our lives...one encased in many forms , coming from different traditions, with different verbal descriptions and stories reflecting the culture of many different times but with one thing in common...direct connection with the Divine Truth. ( I know that could get me in trouble with those who worship the separate form of a Teacher).
One Truth/One Teacher?
Words from these teachers are encapsulated in doctrines and scriptures that we follow as the Truth...We identify with each variation and interpretation as "our separate truth" and "the 'right' truth" but...I honestly believe, there is just One Truth in all of it... so much of the One Uniting Truth the teachings were pointing to gets lost in the translation and interpretation. (And again that would be considered blasphemous to many). I don't mean to offend or diminish anyone's belief systems...I am just compelled to look into this possibility, to question and to explore because I am "not sure" about anything anymore. Yet I feel so very compelled to look for that One Uniting Truth in all faiths.
I no longer identify with one belief system. Like so many are gender-fluid these days, I am Faith - fluid. And I have no idea of why or how I got here really...but I am. I don't know why I write what I write on this blog...how or why I come here everyday. It baffles me. I just know that I have to be here.
I also need to restate that I have no grandiose ideas that I am an expert. I am somewhat of a teacher only because I am a learner. I teach to learn and I learn to teach. To me, they go hand and hand. And I am far, far from egoless at this time. So...do not for a second ...put your faith blindly in what I have to say here...please! I am not sure about anything. If something I have written resonates a bit...explore within yourself why it resonates. I would also encourage you to check out the references I place below most entries...to check in with the real experts, okay?
Paths?
There are three paths or vehicles to understanding Truth, according to the Buddhist teachings: The small, medium and Great paths.
In the small path, which is also called the King-like path, the learner is self-motivated and desires to become enlightened first. In the medium path, or the "Ferry-Keeper" path, the learner wishes to help others cross over to understanding while they too awaken. ( I believe, that is where I am). And the Great Path, is a path that transcends the paradox of Self and other. If I learn, all learn. If I awaken...all awaken. ACIM speaks to this as well. Each of us is the light of the world, and by joining our minds in this light we proclaim the Kingdom of God together and as one. (ACIM-T-6:II:13:5).
For the most part, I am a medium vehicle...on the medium path. Where are you?
Anyway, so much to write about because there is so much I am learning . I do not want to "stuffocate" you. (That is another cool word I heard from the link below.) I will be back.
All is well!
ACIM
Plum Village ( June 2019) Eight Realizations of Great Beings/dharma talk from Br. Phap Hai.Deer Park. Part 4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw8dXB5SylI
Monday, June 8, 2020
Teacher
Teacher
Monkey kings
bow their head in reverence
while studious and
well mannered students
clap and wave their arms about
as the teacher
speaks to lessons
reduced to fading words
and symbols on
yellowed scripts,
translated and transmuted
into concepts that
hold only grains
of the sand
Truth is.
Once a disillusioned Indian Prince,
a humble Jewish carpenter,
a Saudi travelling merchant
and the face of so many others
who have looked directly into the divine,
the teacher stands before us,
an accumulated morphing
of centuries of shed outfits and forms,
different languages and pointers
with only one lesson to share.
The weary teacher has traveled far
along the silk road to the east,
the busy industrial path to the west,
over mountains and through dessert,
through rice patty and through ocean,
through golden lined streets
and war -torn rubble,
to stand here today.
The teacher teaches,
not so much with what is said
but by what is embodied
within this meager form
that is worn as a cloak
around all that is.
The lesson is taught through
slow purposeful steps,
inspired speech,
and a light that shines
so brilliantly
from eyes that
offer Love to all of us
who so desperately want to know
what the teacher is here to teach.
Monkey kings
bow their head in reverence
while studious and
well mannered students
clap and wave their arms about
as the teacher
speaks to lessons
reduced to fading words
and symbols on
yellowed scripts,
translated and transmuted
into concepts that
hold only grains
of the sand
Truth is.
Once a disillusioned Indian Prince,
a humble Jewish carpenter,
a Saudi travelling merchant
and the face of so many others
who have looked directly into the divine,
the teacher stands before us,
an accumulated morphing
of centuries of shed outfits and forms,
different languages and pointers
with only one lesson to share.
The weary teacher has traveled far
along the silk road to the east,
the busy industrial path to the west,
over mountains and through dessert,
through rice patty and through ocean,
through golden lined streets
and war -torn rubble,
to stand here today.
The teacher teaches,
not so much with what is said
but by what is embodied
within this meager form
that is worn as a cloak
around all that is.
The lesson is taught through
slow purposeful steps,
inspired speech,
and a light that shines
so brilliantly
from eyes that
offer Love to all of us
who so desperately want to know
what the teacher is here to teach.
© Dale-Lyn (Pen), June 2020
I do not know why I wrote this but I did...against all ego's reprimands and warnings.
I listened to the talk below and this is what came from it, as well as 8 pages of notes lol. ( I am old school...spent many a day in a university classroom, one student among many, trying to capture from the teacher everything I thought was needed in order to pass the exam...while understanding little at the time. So I take notes ...but luckily I understand much, much more from the teachers who teach the "really important" stuff because I have learned to be present) .
All is well!
Plum Village (June, 2019) Eight Realizations of Great Beings/ dharma talk with Br. Phap Hai. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzo_hZolNi4
Sunday, June 7, 2020
Write in the Moment and For the Moment
Touch the preciousness of this moment which will never occur again.
Br. Phap Hai
I think of these words as I sit here wondering what to write about. This moment, right here and right now, is my Life. What do I want to do in, put in it to make it meaningful?
I don't know really but I am here writing. I thought writing was and is what I am supposed to do but I am questioning myself lately. I noticed ego's big greedy face in the mirror the other day and I was a bit taken aback. I have been telling myself that my writing was an egoless adventure where I was not worried about anything but getting the words down...not worried about quality or outcome...I was writing for the sake of writing , a tool used by something greater.
Yet, I realized yesterday that I was attached to an idea, a fantasy of myself as a writer...I thought for a second that I was better than I was. See the "I" in there? I realized through a small series of events that ego was still motivating my writing...there was an "I, me and mine" wrapped into it all. Truth is, a desire for redemption from shame was my major motivation.
Remember my two ego friends? Shamer and Redeemer? As I peel away layers of self protection we encounter once again , Shamer doing what Shamer does best. "Little me" feels "diminished", "less than" others, and somewhat unworthy because of his big "pep(less) talks." Automatically and unconsciously, I call on Redeemer to come to my rescue. This part of my ego, doesn't have much to work with these days to pull me away from Shamer's claws...except my writing.
Ego likes doing , right? So really the only noteworthy thing I have been doing lately is writing. So ego uses that to create a story of redemption. "You got some chapbooks out there...look at how quickly you write the poetry. Some short stories are out...you are working on novels that once published will make people realize that you were doing something of value, you were honing a craft." It tries to convince me that what I write is better than it is.
Well, I read good writing yesterday in my sister's book of short stories and I was so amazed, so impressed and so very jealous of her writing. Now...she took the time to hone her craft and to build on it. She admittedly "worked" to create what she created. And it shows! Her stories blew me away. Her book inspired me to re-evaluate my own writing and I went back to the Chap books I more or less threw together...and realized that without the committed effort they should have received...what I put together was not that great. I read my short stories I have out there and did the ego thing of "comparing" them and I felt they were not as good Though, I am truly, truly happy for her, I do feel a little jealousy which is a sure sign that ego was more than a little involved in my writing life. With that comes the realization that ego had once again hopped into the driver seat of my writing adventure.
I do not want ego there. I don't like how he drives. :) I recognize, allow and even embrace the fact that he is there with the feeling of jealousy, diminishment and fear that I will not leave something of value behind. As I do this, I feel I can look into it a bit deeper before letting it go.
I am humbled, which is wonderful and a far cry from shaming. Truth is, I have not yet mastered this craft and it may take another fifty years to do so. That is okay. In the mean time, I can offer my less than perfect work to the scrutinizing eyes of others while learning not to be effected by it. I can practice not being so "I,My, mine" focused and stop taking credit and blame for what I create. I can create for the sake of creating as I practice getting better at it...but content with what I (and I mean beyond I) produce now in this moment. I can be happy and supportive of my sister's talent. I can even learn from her. I can grow and grow and grow as I am, knowing that everything is constantly changing. My ability will change just as the next moment will be completely different from this one.
We need to accept where we are right /write now in our abilities, embrace it so we can touch the preciousness of this moment which will never occur again. This is it! Write!
It is all good! It really is !
All is well!
Br. Phap Hai
I think of these words as I sit here wondering what to write about. This moment, right here and right now, is my Life. What do I want to do in, put in it to make it meaningful?
I don't know really but I am here writing. I thought writing was and is what I am supposed to do but I am questioning myself lately. I noticed ego's big greedy face in the mirror the other day and I was a bit taken aback. I have been telling myself that my writing was an egoless adventure where I was not worried about anything but getting the words down...not worried about quality or outcome...I was writing for the sake of writing , a tool used by something greater.
Yet, I realized yesterday that I was attached to an idea, a fantasy of myself as a writer...I thought for a second that I was better than I was. See the "I" in there? I realized through a small series of events that ego was still motivating my writing...there was an "I, me and mine" wrapped into it all. Truth is, a desire for redemption from shame was my major motivation.
Remember my two ego friends? Shamer and Redeemer? As I peel away layers of self protection we encounter once again , Shamer doing what Shamer does best. "Little me" feels "diminished", "less than" others, and somewhat unworthy because of his big "pep(less) talks." Automatically and unconsciously, I call on Redeemer to come to my rescue. This part of my ego, doesn't have much to work with these days to pull me away from Shamer's claws...except my writing.
Ego likes doing , right? So really the only noteworthy thing I have been doing lately is writing. So ego uses that to create a story of redemption. "You got some chapbooks out there...look at how quickly you write the poetry. Some short stories are out...you are working on novels that once published will make people realize that you were doing something of value, you were honing a craft." It tries to convince me that what I write is better than it is.
Well, I read good writing yesterday in my sister's book of short stories and I was so amazed, so impressed and so very jealous of her writing. Now...she took the time to hone her craft and to build on it. She admittedly "worked" to create what she created. And it shows! Her stories blew me away. Her book inspired me to re-evaluate my own writing and I went back to the Chap books I more or less threw together...and realized that without the committed effort they should have received...what I put together was not that great. I read my short stories I have out there and did the ego thing of "comparing" them and I felt they were not as good Though, I am truly, truly happy for her, I do feel a little jealousy which is a sure sign that ego was more than a little involved in my writing life. With that comes the realization that ego had once again hopped into the driver seat of my writing adventure.
I do not want ego there. I don't like how he drives. :) I recognize, allow and even embrace the fact that he is there with the feeling of jealousy, diminishment and fear that I will not leave something of value behind. As I do this, I feel I can look into it a bit deeper before letting it go.
I am humbled, which is wonderful and a far cry from shaming. Truth is, I have not yet mastered this craft and it may take another fifty years to do so. That is okay. In the mean time, I can offer my less than perfect work to the scrutinizing eyes of others while learning not to be effected by it. I can practice not being so "I,My, mine" focused and stop taking credit and blame for what I create. I can create for the sake of creating as I practice getting better at it...but content with what I (and I mean beyond I) produce now in this moment. I can be happy and supportive of my sister's talent. I can even learn from her. I can grow and grow and grow as I am, knowing that everything is constantly changing. My ability will change just as the next moment will be completely different from this one.
We need to accept where we are right /write now in our abilities, embrace it so we can touch the preciousness of this moment which will never occur again. This is it! Write!
It is all good! It really is !
All is well!
Friday, June 5, 2020
Allow Self to Open; Later Better Than Never
The causal level needs to remain your primary focus, the teaching of enlightenment your main purpose, and peace your most precious gift to the world.
Eckhart Tolle(2004), The Power of Now, New World Library (page 204)
A Delayed Blossoming
Man! This waking up is a very strange thing. It is like part of me is standing back watching my little self as pieces of protective coating keep peeling off...sometimes very painfully. I am "feeling" more and more as each layer is removed and that is a strange thing too. I am feeling the pain and raw vulnerability but I am also feeling the sweet release of years and years of accumulated pressure against very tender flesh. It is a nice feeling as I connect to something I so long denied. Hmm!
Anyway, I am also having something like "Life Reviews'. Because of being triggered as I was yesterday or for no apparent reason at all I will have a vivid memory of something in my past, usually something related to what I did or didn't do to others and myself over the years that could have led to pain. It is like I am being shown on some old movie screen how my pain got in the way of truly "being" there for others and myself, keeping me stuck in some self-made comfort zone, and preventing me from living fully and joyfully the way I was meant to. So as I relive these experiences, I experience some regret, not so much over what I lost living like this, but over the fact that others got hurt or didn't get the best of me in a way that would make them feel better about themselves. I regret that I didn't love openly enough, did not offer peace enough, so afraid was I of getting hurt.
I also know that this pain has knotted in my body and has caused some cells to become confused. I know it is responsible for the muscle aches and pains we all get, and it is also responsible for whatever I got going on in my heart and vessels, what I got going on with the pelvic pain I'm still getting and this mass, first discovered in November which is now leaving me with a constant, undeniable pressure in my under arm no matter how much I try to ignore it. Though these things are very physical and real in that context...I see beyond their physicality. I almost ( almost lol...still sounds pretty much like Charlie Brown's teacher's voice...garbled) hear what these things are telling me.
It is time, I guess, for knots to be removed or untied, for pressure to be released so the tender flesh can finally heal. It is time to open fully to what Life is truly all about. Man...it only took over five decades to get to this point...lol. How is that for a delay in blossoming? Doesn't matter, I am here. :)
And I am just standing back watching all this go down and experiencing it at the same time....It is so very strange and so very awe inspiring. Hmmm! I know I cannot go through this without sharing it...I have to share this learning...so I keep coming back here...again and again and again. Sometimes I have 100 readers a day, sometimes fifty and as I have now...numbers trickling, once again, below 20. It doesn't matter how many read, what the outcome is ...I just know I have to show up. I have to come here! I have to offer a way to peace.
It is all good...so very, very good!
Eckhart Tolle(2004), The Power of Now, New World Library (page 204)
A Delayed Blossoming
Man! This waking up is a very strange thing. It is like part of me is standing back watching my little self as pieces of protective coating keep peeling off...sometimes very painfully. I am "feeling" more and more as each layer is removed and that is a strange thing too. I am feeling the pain and raw vulnerability but I am also feeling the sweet release of years and years of accumulated pressure against very tender flesh. It is a nice feeling as I connect to something I so long denied. Hmm!
Anyway, I am also having something like "Life Reviews'. Because of being triggered as I was yesterday or for no apparent reason at all I will have a vivid memory of something in my past, usually something related to what I did or didn't do to others and myself over the years that could have led to pain. It is like I am being shown on some old movie screen how my pain got in the way of truly "being" there for others and myself, keeping me stuck in some self-made comfort zone, and preventing me from living fully and joyfully the way I was meant to. So as I relive these experiences, I experience some regret, not so much over what I lost living like this, but over the fact that others got hurt or didn't get the best of me in a way that would make them feel better about themselves. I regret that I didn't love openly enough, did not offer peace enough, so afraid was I of getting hurt.
I also know that this pain has knotted in my body and has caused some cells to become confused. I know it is responsible for the muscle aches and pains we all get, and it is also responsible for whatever I got going on in my heart and vessels, what I got going on with the pelvic pain I'm still getting and this mass, first discovered in November which is now leaving me with a constant, undeniable pressure in my under arm no matter how much I try to ignore it. Though these things are very physical and real in that context...I see beyond their physicality. I almost ( almost lol...still sounds pretty much like Charlie Brown's teacher's voice...garbled) hear what these things are telling me.
It is time, I guess, for knots to be removed or untied, for pressure to be released so the tender flesh can finally heal. It is time to open fully to what Life is truly all about. Man...it only took over five decades to get to this point...lol. How is that for a delay in blossoming? Doesn't matter, I am here. :)
And I am just standing back watching all this go down and experiencing it at the same time....It is so very strange and so very awe inspiring. Hmmm! I know I cannot go through this without sharing it...I have to share this learning...so I keep coming back here...again and again and again. Sometimes I have 100 readers a day, sometimes fifty and as I have now...numbers trickling, once again, below 20. It doesn't matter how many read, what the outcome is ...I just know I have to show up. I have to come here! I have to offer a way to peace.
It is all good...so very, very good!
Wednesday, June 3, 2020
Sweet, Sweet Sadness
Something sweet can be found in sadness, a soft melancholy whisper that breathes life into a withering soul, filling the void where apathy once sat.
Me- written years ago
I am feeling sad but it is a good non-resistant sadness. I am just letting it trickle through my eyes and down my face. I am not overwhelmed by it...it is just there. It is kind of nice, taking some pressure off some old wounds within me. Ahhhh. It just feels good to release.
Is this suffering? No...just a gentle release of at least some old stored stuff that really, really needs to come out. I do not want to create story around this and just be able to accept the feeling, the release. I want to allow myself to experience it fully and for the most part I can do that now...just sit with it. It is so nice to be able to do that. But...story does come back .
Sometimes , this thought, "I am so broken." comes into my mind and my experience. I see so clearly and accept what past trauma has done to my exterior self, creating a need for me to protect the vulnerable parts. I look back and see how my chronic fear of being hurt again made me act defensively offensive towards people who were kind to me, how I could never truly understand why they were kind to me; how my need to keep this shell intact prevented me from seeing their pain and meeting their needs in a way I would have wanted to. It made me selfish, egoic, always trying to create this redeemed version of myself to hide the brokenness within. My seeking to create a protective shell over the wounded parts pinched me off from who I really am. I was not my best Self and I was not always a very good friend.
Hmmm! Anyway I am thinking of one friend, in particular, who I befriended months after my mother had died. She sat in front of me in grade ten math class and if it wasn't for her I would never have passed math, and I probably wouldn't have passed the lessons Life was teaching me either. She had a big, beautiful heart and she liked me. I could never understand why she liked me or laughed at my jokes. We became really good friends, best friends actually. My own life was very, very chaotic at the time and I found a sweet reprieve in her presence and in her home that I so desperately needed. I honestly don't know where I would be without that. She was the first person I ever spoke some of my trauma story to. It was like relieving me of a burden that lay heavy on my heart for 16 years...telling a secret I was told never to tell but that was so very, very necessary to tell. She was a very, very important part of my life. I don't think I did anything for her but get her in trouble.
I, of course, was not only broken but I was a 16 year old girl who like most sixteen year old girls wanted to be liked, popular, seen as pretty,cool and all those things. I also needed to redeem myself by creating an image that would hide all the broken pieces inside. So while I befriended her, one of the most authentic people I ever met, I was intent on creating a very inauthentic suit of armour around myself. That did not go well for our friendship. My attempt to be cool...made me uncool. My pain would not stay beneath the shell...it kept coming out and often, misdirected and uncontained, it hurt those I loved the most. I became, many times, a bitch to her. She had to have seen me as a selfish bitch, a terrible friend and nothing but a burden on her life. How could she not? Yet she remained patient and kind. Well, I never asked her what she thought of me...I was afraid to. We kind of grew apart...I kept building this redeeming self to create a shell around me...and that became my focus in life. So into preserving, "me-me" ...I neglected to tell her how much her friendship meant and I neglected the God daughter she gave me.
Recently, and ironically our children got together and are having a child together. Though I love her daughter as one of my own, (She was friends with my eldest for years before she and my son started dating and I have come to know her as a sweet and kind girl.) I was resistant to the relationship with my son because I was told by others that they were involved in something very dangerous together and my fear kicked in. My need to protect my then very vulnerable son from what I felt (and was told) was her doing made me a mother bear! I became defensively offensive again...well honest, out right, telling it like it is which did not go over well with her daughter or with her ( understandably). Things are different now but sometimes wounds don't heal completely. I never apologized to her nor did I even speak to her for years ( only because of my own shame). That is until last night when we spoke over the phone about the approaching baby shower. I started crying then after hanging up...just a slow trickle of tears and I never stopped. Hmmm!
The phone call triggered me to look at my brokenness and how it impacted my life and the life of others over the years. I see the shell I wore and still do to some extent, the shell she knew me by. I see my own brokenness under that shell and wonder if she sees it enough to forgive me for my behaviour over the years. I don't know. If my time here is indeed running out, I want her to know how grateful I am for her presence in my life and how sorry I am for not being a better friend.
Awkward Trickles
Ahhhh...sigh...sweet, sweet sadness.
All is well!
Me- written years ago
I am feeling sad but it is a good non-resistant sadness. I am just letting it trickle through my eyes and down my face. I am not overwhelmed by it...it is just there. It is kind of nice, taking some pressure off some old wounds within me. Ahhhh. It just feels good to release.
Is this suffering? No...just a gentle release of at least some old stored stuff that really, really needs to come out. I do not want to create story around this and just be able to accept the feeling, the release. I want to allow myself to experience it fully and for the most part I can do that now...just sit with it. It is so nice to be able to do that. But...story does come back .
Sometimes , this thought, "I am so broken." comes into my mind and my experience. I see so clearly and accept what past trauma has done to my exterior self, creating a need for me to protect the vulnerable parts. I look back and see how my chronic fear of being hurt again made me act defensively offensive towards people who were kind to me, how I could never truly understand why they were kind to me; how my need to keep this shell intact prevented me from seeing their pain and meeting their needs in a way I would have wanted to. It made me selfish, egoic, always trying to create this redeemed version of myself to hide the brokenness within. My seeking to create a protective shell over the wounded parts pinched me off from who I really am. I was not my best Self and I was not always a very good friend.
Hmmm! Anyway I am thinking of one friend, in particular, who I befriended months after my mother had died. She sat in front of me in grade ten math class and if it wasn't for her I would never have passed math, and I probably wouldn't have passed the lessons Life was teaching me either. She had a big, beautiful heart and she liked me. I could never understand why she liked me or laughed at my jokes. We became really good friends, best friends actually. My own life was very, very chaotic at the time and I found a sweet reprieve in her presence and in her home that I so desperately needed. I honestly don't know where I would be without that. She was the first person I ever spoke some of my trauma story to. It was like relieving me of a burden that lay heavy on my heart for 16 years...telling a secret I was told never to tell but that was so very, very necessary to tell. She was a very, very important part of my life. I don't think I did anything for her but get her in trouble.
I, of course, was not only broken but I was a 16 year old girl who like most sixteen year old girls wanted to be liked, popular, seen as pretty,cool and all those things. I also needed to redeem myself by creating an image that would hide all the broken pieces inside. So while I befriended her, one of the most authentic people I ever met, I was intent on creating a very inauthentic suit of armour around myself. That did not go well for our friendship. My attempt to be cool...made me uncool. My pain would not stay beneath the shell...it kept coming out and often, misdirected and uncontained, it hurt those I loved the most. I became, many times, a bitch to her. She had to have seen me as a selfish bitch, a terrible friend and nothing but a burden on her life. How could she not? Yet she remained patient and kind. Well, I never asked her what she thought of me...I was afraid to. We kind of grew apart...I kept building this redeeming self to create a shell around me...and that became my focus in life. So into preserving, "me-me" ...I neglected to tell her how much her friendship meant and I neglected the God daughter she gave me.
Recently, and ironically our children got together and are having a child together. Though I love her daughter as one of my own, (She was friends with my eldest for years before she and my son started dating and I have come to know her as a sweet and kind girl.) I was resistant to the relationship with my son because I was told by others that they were involved in something very dangerous together and my fear kicked in. My need to protect my then very vulnerable son from what I felt (and was told) was her doing made me a mother bear! I became defensively offensive again...well honest, out right, telling it like it is which did not go over well with her daughter or with her ( understandably). Things are different now but sometimes wounds don't heal completely. I never apologized to her nor did I even speak to her for years ( only because of my own shame). That is until last night when we spoke over the phone about the approaching baby shower. I started crying then after hanging up...just a slow trickle of tears and I never stopped. Hmmm!
The phone call triggered me to look at my brokenness and how it impacted my life and the life of others over the years. I see the shell I wore and still do to some extent, the shell she knew me by. I see my own brokenness under that shell and wonder if she sees it enough to forgive me for my behaviour over the years. I don't know. If my time here is indeed running out, I want her to know how grateful I am for her presence in my life and how sorry I am for not being a better friend.
Awkward Trickles
So much defectiveness
in this stinking, rotting shell
I wear around myself,
gapping holes, pieces missing,
allowing trickles…just trickles
of much too thick
inner fluid to drip out…
offering, pathetically offering,
a semi sweet release
you cannot see,
of decades of pressure
against my bruised and battered flesh.
You know me as the shell,
with all my broken jagged
pieces,
jabbing and cutting
into your own tender flesh…
not as the bleeding- being emerging,
so slowly and timidly,
from this broken protection
that clings and drags around me ,
awkwardly...so very awkwardly.
In these trickles...mere trickles,
raw realness
comes through…
a realness so quickly wiped away
or gone unnoticed…
at the redeeming image's request.
How I wish you could see
beyond the image
beyond the image
I never was.
Within this salty release
there is gratitude,
as well as regret
for the way I might have hurt you…
for the way I might have hurt you…
denied your own suffering…
in my misguided attempts
to keep this shell from
falling to pieces around me….
But my dear friend…
I did
see you…
I did know you were there …
picking up
pieces
of shell
that continued to fall
awkwardly...oh so awkwardly
away from me.
Thank You
for attempting to glue
the jagged pieces back in place
with cut and bleeding hands,
for keeping me looking
whole and intact,
for helping me hide
the infected mess
that kept leaking out
all over you.
Flawed, I am,
and will always be,
a broken shell
unable to hide
the layer of decay
beneath it
but I will do my best
to free myself
of that which clings,
to heal the tender tissue
with my own acceptance of it,
and then I will expose
this whole, complete being
you never knew...
to the light it
was meant to shine under.
Then, I might ask for your forgiveness
and my own.
Only then will I be worthy of it.
© Dale-Lyn , June 2020
Tuesday, June 2, 2020
Suffering and the Law of Attraction
But seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things will be added onto you.
Matthew: 6:33 ESV
Difference Between Seeking What We Want
What is the biggest difference between the teachings on the Law of Attraction, ACIM, other "indirect path" stuff and what The Bible, Buddhism, Eckhart Tolle and Michael Singer may teach?
I believe that the first approach teaches that "suffering" is an illusion we can transcend the moment we realize it as a product of the ego-self which is not real and the other teaches that suffering is real and requires a direct path of committed practice to transform it.
To Suffer or Not To Suffer
One denies suffering and one embraces it. One says that denial of suffering will bring us to a peaceful, happy and abundant awakened state where we can reap the rewards of everything this physical world has to offer and the other one says accepting the reality of suffering will bring us to a peaceful, content, joyful abundant awakened state where we will realize we do not want or need so little of what the physical world has to offer.
Both agree that the subconscious mind holds the seeds of creation within it and what we focus on , we will create. Both in a sense agree with this law of attraction. They differ, however, in the path we take and how we use that law.
What and How We Seek
What we seek in the first path is the thing that will lead us to awakening and in the second path we seek directly the awakening.
The first path skips the dealing with suffering part all together...It instructs its proponents to focus only on what is wanted, and to deny what we don't. It purports that awakening will come when we see that what we have been focusing on has come to materialize in our physical worlds. This will happen the moment...the moment we see the illusionary nature of ego and limitation and fear etc. In a "holy instant" of witnessing miracles we will transcend beyond these illusions to the reality of Self in its infinite, unlimited nature. What we seek first is not a connection with Self ( the kingdom of God) it is the thing that will prove to us there is a kingdom of God.
The second path, like that of the 8 fold path offered in Buddhism, is a life long practice of awakening through suffering. Suffering is not denied. It is embraced and used as a transformational tool to take us to the true nature of Self and reality. It takes us to a freedom beyond materialistic manifestation.
Here and Now?
Both talk about time being nothing more than a concept, an "idea" created by man. Both speak to the here and now as being all there really is to Life...yet in the first approach, we see a reliance on the future...of manifesting something that is not yet here at some time up there, using this moment here and now to create something up there. Where in the other, there is a practice of fostering acceptance of what is now...of knowing that we have all the conditions we need to be happy right here and now regardless of what is happening around us. In order to awaken we need to embrace what is (which includes our pain) ...without preferring some of it and denying or pushing away other parts of it.
Acceptance of What Is?
Where we use the present moment to seek to add on all things wanted in the first approach, we do not "seek" in the second approach. All things may still be added on when we water selectively and wisely, in the Buddhist practice, for example, but we won't necessarily care about them. We would have reached a greater learning and an unconditional type of peace that can not be fed or diminished by the achievement or the loss of these "things". It will be a peace that passes all understanding.
For example...The Secret teaches that if we focus on what we want and fill our minds with this while we deny what we don't want we will someday get what we want. If we want a dream house...we think ( and feel) that we have this dream house. We affirm, we put sticky notes everywhere, we put pictures of it up on a dream board. We act as if we already have it ( even though it has not yet physically manifested in our present moment while we may be living in a crappy apartment in the ghetto). The thing is...we don't admit to ourselves that we are living in that crappy apartment because it is classified as an unwanted. We deny that reality. We don't think about it. We think instead of the dream house and imagine we are living in that as the cockroaches crawl over our feet. Of course, we are going to feel better thinking about the dream house than we are about our present situation. We are going to have hope instead of despair...which is good, right? But are we fully in our present moment and is our joy and peace unconditional? No...we actually close up to the present moment, to what is now. Our happiness is dependent on a future circumstance that has not arrived.
And it will be added on
I may someday get that dream house and be thrilled and happy that this law really works. I will see it as a miracle...I may invest further into it...Truth is, I will have to basically go onto attempting to manifest the next thing because the happiness I receive from getting this house will only be fleeting. I have to question how many moments have I ignored, looked over, stepped on, dismissed to get to this one? How much have I closed? Was it worth it?
The second path teaches this moment is and because it is with all that is in it, it is my perfect reality. I learn to accept and embrace it for what it is without needing it to be different. I find the value in it. If there is pain...I see that pain as something that will take me closer to peace. I do not close to what is now. I open fully to it. Peace is not conditional or based on what may or may not be happening in my present moment. It is, as Thich Nhat Hanh entitled one of his books, in every breath.
Getting There Directly or Indirectly?
Okay...so the biggest difference is that one approach says that suffering is an illusion and gets in the way of achieving what we want...whether it be a dream house or an awakening. The second approach says, there is nothing wrong with suffering. In fact...it can be the tool needed to lead us to awakening. We may get the dream house in either practice but the dream house will never sustain us or make us happy...because it never was what we really wanted or needed. We learn that the indirect way in Approach One...and the direct way in Approach Two.
Hmmm...just trying to understand.
All is well.
ACIM
Michael Singer ( 2007) the untethered soul. New Harbinger
Thich Nhat Hanh (2011 ) peace is every breath. Harper One
Plum Village (May 2020) Wake Up to the Preciousness of Life /dharma talk with Br. Phap Hai https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awmXLzBZ-RI
Eckhart Tolle ( 2004) The Power of Now. New World Library
Matthew: 6:33 ESV
Difference Between Seeking What We Want
What is the biggest difference between the teachings on the Law of Attraction, ACIM, other "indirect path" stuff and what The Bible, Buddhism, Eckhart Tolle and Michael Singer may teach?
I believe that the first approach teaches that "suffering" is an illusion we can transcend the moment we realize it as a product of the ego-self which is not real and the other teaches that suffering is real and requires a direct path of committed practice to transform it.
To Suffer or Not To Suffer
One denies suffering and one embraces it. One says that denial of suffering will bring us to a peaceful, happy and abundant awakened state where we can reap the rewards of everything this physical world has to offer and the other one says accepting the reality of suffering will bring us to a peaceful, content, joyful abundant awakened state where we will realize we do not want or need so little of what the physical world has to offer.
Both agree that the subconscious mind holds the seeds of creation within it and what we focus on , we will create. Both in a sense agree with this law of attraction. They differ, however, in the path we take and how we use that law.
What and How We Seek
What we seek in the first path is the thing that will lead us to awakening and in the second path we seek directly the awakening.
The first path skips the dealing with suffering part all together...It instructs its proponents to focus only on what is wanted, and to deny what we don't. It purports that awakening will come when we see that what we have been focusing on has come to materialize in our physical worlds. This will happen the moment...the moment we see the illusionary nature of ego and limitation and fear etc. In a "holy instant" of witnessing miracles we will transcend beyond these illusions to the reality of Self in its infinite, unlimited nature. What we seek first is not a connection with Self ( the kingdom of God) it is the thing that will prove to us there is a kingdom of God.
The second path, like that of the 8 fold path offered in Buddhism, is a life long practice of awakening through suffering. Suffering is not denied. It is embraced and used as a transformational tool to take us to the true nature of Self and reality. It takes us to a freedom beyond materialistic manifestation.
Here and Now?
Both talk about time being nothing more than a concept, an "idea" created by man. Both speak to the here and now as being all there really is to Life...yet in the first approach, we see a reliance on the future...of manifesting something that is not yet here at some time up there, using this moment here and now to create something up there. Where in the other, there is a practice of fostering acceptance of what is now...of knowing that we have all the conditions we need to be happy right here and now regardless of what is happening around us. In order to awaken we need to embrace what is (which includes our pain) ...without preferring some of it and denying or pushing away other parts of it.
Acceptance of What Is?
Where we use the present moment to seek to add on all things wanted in the first approach, we do not "seek" in the second approach. All things may still be added on when we water selectively and wisely, in the Buddhist practice, for example, but we won't necessarily care about them. We would have reached a greater learning and an unconditional type of peace that can not be fed or diminished by the achievement or the loss of these "things". It will be a peace that passes all understanding.
For example...The Secret teaches that if we focus on what we want and fill our minds with this while we deny what we don't want we will someday get what we want. If we want a dream house...we think ( and feel) that we have this dream house. We affirm, we put sticky notes everywhere, we put pictures of it up on a dream board. We act as if we already have it ( even though it has not yet physically manifested in our present moment while we may be living in a crappy apartment in the ghetto). The thing is...we don't admit to ourselves that we are living in that crappy apartment because it is classified as an unwanted. We deny that reality. We don't think about it. We think instead of the dream house and imagine we are living in that as the cockroaches crawl over our feet. Of course, we are going to feel better thinking about the dream house than we are about our present situation. We are going to have hope instead of despair...which is good, right? But are we fully in our present moment and is our joy and peace unconditional? No...we actually close up to the present moment, to what is now. Our happiness is dependent on a future circumstance that has not arrived.
And it will be added on
I may someday get that dream house and be thrilled and happy that this law really works. I will see it as a miracle...I may invest further into it...Truth is, I will have to basically go onto attempting to manifest the next thing because the happiness I receive from getting this house will only be fleeting. I have to question how many moments have I ignored, looked over, stepped on, dismissed to get to this one? How much have I closed? Was it worth it?
The second path teaches this moment is and because it is with all that is in it, it is my perfect reality. I learn to accept and embrace it for what it is without needing it to be different. I find the value in it. If there is pain...I see that pain as something that will take me closer to peace. I do not close to what is now. I open fully to it. Peace is not conditional or based on what may or may not be happening in my present moment. It is, as Thich Nhat Hanh entitled one of his books, in every breath.
Getting There Directly or Indirectly?
Okay...so the biggest difference is that one approach says that suffering is an illusion and gets in the way of achieving what we want...whether it be a dream house or an awakening. The second approach says, there is nothing wrong with suffering. In fact...it can be the tool needed to lead us to awakening. We may get the dream house in either practice but the dream house will never sustain us or make us happy...because it never was what we really wanted or needed. We learn that the indirect way in Approach One...and the direct way in Approach Two.
Hmmm...just trying to understand.
All is well.
ACIM
Michael Singer ( 2007) the untethered soul. New Harbinger
Thich Nhat Hanh (2011 ) peace is every breath. Harper One
Plum Village (May 2020) Wake Up to the Preciousness of Life /dharma talk with Br. Phap Hai https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awmXLzBZ-RI
Eckhart Tolle ( 2004) The Power of Now. New World Library
Monday, June 1, 2020
A Little More On Wanting Special Relationships
You are afraid of this because you believe that without the ego, all would be chaos. Yet, I assure you that without the ego, all would be love.
ACIM-T-15: V:1:6-7
(I played with my camera yesterday, for the first time in a long time...yeah!!! I call this: Awkward First Dinner Date!)
Still Looking For A Soul Mate?
Still pondering over the difference between what Uell S. Anderson and The Secret teaches and that which Buddhism and other dogma teaches. We talked a little bit yesterday about the wanting and seeking to manifest a soul mate. Both approaches teach that we create the world we see with our minds, we therefore manifest "things" with our minds as well. So can we really manifest a soul mate by watering that seed in our store consciousness? Probably???
Is This What You Really Want?
The question I posed again and again was...is that what we really, really want or is this one person, we seek to make us complete, something the mind-made self seeks to manifest into our experience? If so...we do know that is an ego desire...not a spiritual one, don't we? And we do know, by now, where ego desires take us?
The desire for special relationships, ACIM and Eckhart Tolle teach, is an egoic thing...meant to end or diminish the sense of suffering derived from feeling incomplete. When we assume another person, outside ourselves, has the ability to fulfill us and make us happy...we are setting ourselves up for more suffering. What a horrendous, heavy and impossible mission to dump on another being in this world...to make them responsible for our sense of value and worth. This is not Love...in the truest sense of the word...it is egoic need.
So is it wrong to want a soul mate or to be in a special relationship with someone?
Though there is nothing right or wrong about a special relationship we need to realize that the idea and expectation we place upon them feed the ego not the Self . That means, they can be used as a tool for temporary egoic satisfaction and also a weapon of fear that keeps us bound to ego. It can keep us attached to this idea, that we are separate "little me's" in a dangerous , lonely world. In order to make it worthwhile, we need another( or something outside ourselves) to complete us.
True Love extends way beyond the ego and this idea of "me", and "my" and "mine". True Love is liberating and non selective. Ego love is very selective, conditional and binding. Special relationship ideology can bind us to ego rather than bring us to Self...if relationships are built on a need to make one complete. We are already complete, according to Buddhist and other well known doctrine.
So we just need to be careful when we place all our attention on watering seeds in our moment in order to grow or manifest future romance in the future . It is not the "romance" and ego's version of love you really, really want...it is Love.
I wrote about this in 2017. Check this out: http://www.aquarianonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Enlighten-Up-with-The-Aquarian-Winter-2017-issue.pdf.
page 11
Healthy relationships are relationships that are built on Love not need or fear. The opposite of love is fear, but what is all encompassing can have no opposite. ACIM-T-Introduction When we love without ego, we love big!
All is well!
ACIM
Eckhart Tolle (July 2008 ) One -Sided Relationships.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3miuaOWsj8
ACIM-T-15: V:1:6-7
(I played with my camera yesterday, for the first time in a long time...yeah!!! I call this: Awkward First Dinner Date!)
Still Looking For A Soul Mate?
Still pondering over the difference between what Uell S. Anderson and The Secret teaches and that which Buddhism and other dogma teaches. We talked a little bit yesterday about the wanting and seeking to manifest a soul mate. Both approaches teach that we create the world we see with our minds, we therefore manifest "things" with our minds as well. So can we really manifest a soul mate by watering that seed in our store consciousness? Probably???
Is This What You Really Want?
The question I posed again and again was...is that what we really, really want or is this one person, we seek to make us complete, something the mind-made self seeks to manifest into our experience? If so...we do know that is an ego desire...not a spiritual one, don't we? And we do know, by now, where ego desires take us?
The desire for special relationships, ACIM and Eckhart Tolle teach, is an egoic thing...meant to end or diminish the sense of suffering derived from feeling incomplete. When we assume another person, outside ourselves, has the ability to fulfill us and make us happy...we are setting ourselves up for more suffering. What a horrendous, heavy and impossible mission to dump on another being in this world...to make them responsible for our sense of value and worth. This is not Love...in the truest sense of the word...it is egoic need.
So is it wrong to want a soul mate or to be in a special relationship with someone?
Though there is nothing right or wrong about a special relationship we need to realize that the idea and expectation we place upon them feed the ego not the Self . That means, they can be used as a tool for temporary egoic satisfaction and also a weapon of fear that keeps us bound to ego. It can keep us attached to this idea, that we are separate "little me's" in a dangerous , lonely world. In order to make it worthwhile, we need another( or something outside ourselves) to complete us.
True Love extends way beyond the ego and this idea of "me", and "my" and "mine". True Love is liberating and non selective. Ego love is very selective, conditional and binding. Special relationship ideology can bind us to ego rather than bring us to Self...if relationships are built on a need to make one complete. We are already complete, according to Buddhist and other well known doctrine.
So we just need to be careful when we place all our attention on watering seeds in our moment in order to grow or manifest future romance in the future . It is not the "romance" and ego's version of love you really, really want...it is Love.
I wrote about this in 2017. Check this out: http://www.aquarianonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Enlighten-Up-with-The-Aquarian-Winter-2017-issue.pdf.
page 11
Healthy relationships are relationships that are built on Love not need or fear. The opposite of love is fear, but what is all encompassing can have no opposite. ACIM-T-Introduction When we love without ego, we love big!
All is well!
ACIM
Eckhart Tolle (July 2008 ) One -Sided Relationships.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3miuaOWsj8
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