Going Somewhere?

 Where are you going? Even if you have no basis for understanding what is happening to you, you are still having the undeniable experience of going somewhere.

Michael Singer, page 174

I finally finished 'studying' the untethered soul, for the third time.  Now I am absorbing it at a deeper level than I did before.  Why?

Cuz low and behold I am getting a bit deeper.  I am actually moving somewhere.  That direction of movement is not "out there".  I am stepping away to some degree from my physical and psychological being and into my spiritual being. It is quite amazing to realize that is what is happening to me.

Back, in and up.

The direction we go then, to tap into our higher nature, involves a drifting  back,  a settling in  and a lifting up. 

Let's start with lifting up.

When we think of God, or think of the spiritual we have a tendency to look up, don't we?  We use the term "ascended beings" to describe those who are close to God, and "up there" in reference to Heaven. We have a sense of going up.

Regardless of what our cultural beliefs are in regards to the Divine we know that contact with It involves  going "up".  We are constantly going from a lower state of consciousness and vibration to a higher state.  That is what we are designed to do. We go from "low" energy to "high"  which will manifest as going from a certain illness propensity to wellness, from suffering to peace, unhappiness to joy, from fear to Love.  We are moving up from low to high.

Now let's look at drifting back.

How do we drift back? We first need to understand  the two experiences we have.  We have the experience of the world in front of us ...the foreground of our existence which includes all the form that is swirling  around us. It is a physical and psychological world consisting of things, thoughts, feelings, beliefs etc. What I call the "busy world".  

Then we have the "real world" in the background...ultimate spacious stillness and emptiness , the background on which the foreground is painted.  

In order to drift back we need to  let go of that which we are clinging to, of our attachment to everything in the forefront of our existence... We stop holding on to the erroneous belief that the form moving around us and through us  has  the power to  bring happiness or unhappiness to us. We let go of "ego" or this tendency to defend and attack for "little me" and we let go of the perspective  that this is who we are and where we belong.  We let go of the tendency then toward  reactivity...

And as soon as we let go we drift back away from our identification with things in this world. We drift  back from our identification with  mind and body.  We are no longer lost in it and as soon as we release our hold we drift back behind this illusion of a busy world. We create a distance between ourselves and our thoughts and emotions. 

Now what is interesting is that we cannot go "up"very far  in the world that exists in front of us. It has a very low ceiling because it is based on so many limiting beliefs.  If we try to go up using mental concepts or physical abilities we will keep bonking our heads on the ceiling. 

Think of it like  being a helium balloon in a room with a very low ceiling that was built as an add on in front of a room with the highest ceiling...infact with no ceiling. As a helium balloon it is natural for you to lift up but you can only lift to the ceiling.  If you want to really go up you have to slip back into the other room behind you where there is no ceiling.  You have to drift back into the background that is spacious and infinite. Of course to do that, you can't be holding on to the door frame of the low ceiling room.  You have to let go.

In?

Well in is a relative term as are all the directional pointers we are using. What is "in" really? 

What helps me to visulaize going "in" is to think of going deeper, going beyond the superficial outer world to the inner, going beyond the body or the psyche to the empty hollowness  inside. Kind of like the insides of a hollow Chocolate bunny. ..just space.  Spirit is in this space, it is this space and the more we are here the less we are going to identify with that thin chocolate layer around us. We settle into that space. So if someone or something comes and takes a big chomp out of that outer layer...it isn't going to bother us. 

When we drift back, settle in and lift up we identify more with spirit than form. 

What does it feel like to identify more with Spirit than with form?You used to walk around feeling tension; now you walk around feeling love. You just feel love for no reason.  Your backdrop is love.  Your backdrop is openness , beauty and appreciation. 

You are going somewhere!

All is well in my world.

Michael Singer (2007) the untethered soul. Oakland: New Harbinger/ Noetic Books

Walking the Path

 What happens to one who walks the path toward God? What transformation do they go through along the way?

...imagine what would happen if you started feeling tremendous love for all creatures, for every plant, for every animal, and for all the beauties of nature.

Imagine if every child seemed like your own, and every person you saw looked like a beautiful flower, with its own color, its own expression, shape, and sounds.

As you went deeper and deeper, you would start noticing a phenomenal thing-you are no longer judging. The process of judging has simply stopped.

There is just appreciating and honoring.  

Where there used to be judging, there is now respecting, loving, and cherishing.

To differentiate is to judge. 

To see, to experience, and to honor is to participate in life instead of standing back and judging it.

Michael A. Singer, the untethered soul, 2007/New Harbinger/Noetic Books, page 176-177

All is well!

Living Between the Edges

 The extremes create their opposites; the wise avoid them. Find the balance in the center and you will live in harmony page  172

I, upon revisiting the article that came out of me almost four years ago,  was reminded of what I would do if my time was limited.  I was reminded, therefore, of how I really want to live Life on a daily basis.  Am I living this?:

• Accept the temporary nature of all things including my physical life.
• Look for and find the miracle of life in everything around me from the sunrise to the air I breathe. It is all miraculous.
• Honour life with everything I do.
• Find meaning by serving. Make everything I do a service to others, the world, and self.
• Smile and laugh as much as I can.
• Take a few moments here and now to stop doing and just be.
• Partake in a spiritual practice at least twice today for 20 minutes: pray, meditate, be mindful.
• Try! Commit myself to facing at least one of my fears that is getting in the way of me having the life I want.
• Make amends with someone who I have estranged from and love everyone I see.
• Write a list of all the things I am grateful for and say thank you to life!

Yeah I am living the above. 

It's good to know I am doing something right these days. :) And gratfeully, feeling the way I feel, these are  things that do not require a lot of physical effort, a lot of swinging from one extreme to another.  They are things that keep me in the here and now.  They keep me centered.

I want to talk, then, about being centered, about being balanced...about being in the Tao.

In The Tao? 

The more you can work with the balance, the more you can just sail through Life.  Effortless action is what happens when you come into the Tao.  Life happens, you're there, but you don't make it happen.  There is no burden; there is no stress.  The forces take care of themselves as you sit in the center.  That is the Tao.  It's the most beautiful place in your life.  You can't touch it[ or see it, know it, or name it], but you can be at one with it. page 171

So the Tao is that empty, hollow , unmoving, undisturbed space in the center of all Life. 

Events, circumstances, the busyness of this world, according to our minds,  is constantly swirling around it  like a cyclone ...one extreme one way leading to an opposite extreme the other way. The Tao is the eye of that storm, feeding off the energy of that storm as the balance point of all extremes. All energy, then, is in the Tao but unlike the events that seem to be  moving in a frenzy around it, that seem to be swinging away to the right or away to the left of it...no effort is required.  It just is.

Now we have a choice we can get caught up in or  lost in the swirling extremes...the going ons around us, the swinging back and forth of a pendulum...or we can sit in the center as the stilled pendulum does, as someone in the eye of the storm does and simply watch undisturbed by what is going on around us. This is true balance.  Approaching Life from here requires little effort, srain or stress. 

How do we stay in the Tao when Life is so chaotic and confusing?

We need to realize that Life is not confusing. We are confused.  

Our minds are creating an appearance of chaos. We are confused because we, as 'little me'  are constantly getting swept up into the whirlwinds of the mind.  It's like we are being blown around in that cyclone while we hold a butterfly net  in one hand and a tennis racket in another.  We try to sweep up and cling to all the things that are swirling around  us that we believe will settle us and swat away all the things that we believe will hurt us. We go from one hand to the other, one extreme to another in hope that we will calm the storm when all we are doing is increasing the intensity of  it.  So much effort...so much action is required of us to do this  and we are exhausted getting nowhere. 

It all seems so chaotic and confusing...when it is just our minds  that are confused. We just don't realize how confused we are. We see Life as creating a personal onslaught of confusion when it is not that way at all. We are  thinking it is all happening to us when we are merely confused  about our part in all this. 

In the Way, nothing is personal.  You are merely an instrument in the hands of the forces, participating in the harmony of balance. page 171

Life is not confusing.  Life is just unfolding before us as it is meant to do in order to create balance.  It is our focus on the unbalanced, on the swinging extremes that is confusing us.  All we need to do, then,  is put down the tennis racket ( stop resisting and pushing Life away), put down the butterfly net ( stop trying to fix, attain, add, cling to selected aspects of Life) and just allow ourselves  to slip into the center of the storm.  

You must reach the point where your whole interest lies in the balance and not in any personal preference for how things should be. page 171

As soon as we stop exerting effort for this or that...everything naturally falls toward the middle and we become centered. We can watch Life from there and eventually see how perfect and orderly it all is.

How do we stay in the Tao when we cannot see it, touch it name it or know it?

Imagine you are blind:

 In the Tao, you are blind, and you have to learn to be blind.  You can never see where the Tao is going; you can only be there with it?page 171

Like a blind person will do walking along a sidewalk with a cane , all you can do is feel for the edges of each extreme  and walk between them. Try to stay in the middle. As soon as you feel an edge move inward.  If you begin to feel a preference for something you erronously believe will settle you...take a step inward from that reducing the swing of that pendulum.  When you start to feel an aversion for something, take a step inward away from that edge.  

This will reduce your reactivity, your  reliance on duality and the mental, emotional and physical behaviours that result from it.  It will reduce the intensity of the storm within your mind; it will reduce your confusion and your disturbance.  It will center you and balance you. 

It will give you the ultimate clarity so you can look out at Life and see its perfection, as  you  walk right down the middle of your path,  living and breathing in the Tao. 

All is well.

Michael A. Singer ( 2007) the untethered soul. New Harbinger/ Noetic Books

A Breath Away

 

A wise person realizes that at any moment they may breathe out and the breath may not come back in.

Michael A. Singer,  page 158

"If with one breath this can change, then I want to live at the highest level while I'm alive. I'm going to stop bothering the people I love.  I'm going to live life from the deepest part of my being."

Michael A. Singer, page 159

Talking About Death

Crazy lady is going to get a little morbid. :)

Well it will seem that I am being morbid and untimely talking about death,  it being the season of new life and resurrection-Easter/spring. I believe, however, it is a perfect time to talk about it because when we look  at Death we see the preciousness of Life. Easter is all about the dying of one thing (our attachment to physicality) for something much greater.

I do not see myself as morbid and I am not saying I am overly wise either. I have just learned to look at death differently and doing so has made a tremendous difference in how I approach Life. 

An Article On the Subject

In 2017 I wrote an article on this very subject. It got published on an online site called Global Harmony.[I didn't know much about this site other than I loved the name, they have great photo-images and they accepted my 4th article when I was doing a self imposed  write 8 articles/publish 8 articles in a ferw months challenge. ] I will enclose the link at the bottom of this page if you care to read it.  It is long winded as I tend to be when I am discussing things that seem Life enhancing and transformative. 

I was thinking of that article when I was reading Chapter 17 in Singer's book, Contemplating Death. I think it said all I would say in response to this chapter even though I had not read the untethered soul until after I  wrote it.

The article was about living your Life like you only have 24 hours left.  In his book, Singer encourages us to ponder what we would do and how we would live if we discover we only have one week left. Once you determine what you would do, therefore what is most important, then ask yourself why you are not doing that now? 

If you were to ask this question of people who are truly awakened, they wouldn't have any problem answering you....If death were to come in an hour, if death were to come in a week, if death were to com in a year, they would live exactly the same way as they're living now. There is not a single thing they carry inside of their hearts that they would rather be doing.  In other words, they are living their lives fully and are not making compromises or playing games with themselves. page 159

Would you be able to answer that question as easily?  Or are you still wasting time, squandering Life, treating it like its not something precious? 

Hmmm! I need to really reflect on that question again and on the 24 hour to do list I added at the conclusion of my article.  I realize now that I am not afraid to die but am I living fully? 

Doing More?

When I ponder the idea that I may be  missing out on "big moments" and I have to "do" different things, fill my bucket list with new adventures I feel more than a little pressured.  It is like "Oh man...do you mean there are more things I have to add to my already full plate just to say I am living life fully? " 

Singer helps to make that a little easier to digest by reminding us it is not about the doing or adding to our lives...it is about the "being" in our lives.  If we have to "do" something...it will simply be to go deeper. 

Going Deeper

Making the most of Life  has little to do with adding more or catching that high we are chasing. It is not about filling our days with the "big moments"we are so afraid we are missing out on, either.  It is just about being there fully in each moment, no matter what is happening in it, experiencing it, appreciating it and loving it for what it is. 

The beauty of addressing deep truths is that you don't have to change your life; you just change how you live your life.  It's not what you are doing; it's how much of you is doing it. page 160 

We are all living on borrowed time.  These bodies will not last forever.  At some undetermined time, the heart will beat its last beat, the lungs will breathe their last breath and our bodies will cease to be. Knowing that and making that a part of your awareness everyday is not a morbid thing to do...it is a very wise thing to do.  

Death shows us how all things are temporal, coming and going and we in these forms are offered a slice of precious Life to witness and experience ...We come in and we go out in some beautiful dance we are a small part of.  

We need to look beyond this idea of  "my life".  This is going deeper. It is not our life...we are just witnessing it as it comes in and as it goes out. Let's make the most of this time we have being the witness  while we can. Contemplating death can remind us to do that!

All is well in my world! 

Micahel A. Singer (2007) the untethered soul.  New Harbinger/Noetic Books

My article: http://www.globalharmonycrew.com/how-to-make-the-most-of-your-life-the-24-hour-life/

Revising Poetry

 

 In poetry everything is permitted.

With only this condition , of course.

You have to improve on the blank page.

Niconar Parra

 

Sharing a revised poem as part of an exercise from  In the Palm of Your Hand. The objective was to take a poorly written rhyming poem with several of the commonly found poetic mistakes in it and revise it. So I chose this poem from an entry on February 21.  It came out very quickly and it was very poorly written.  There were hundreds of mistakes and poorly written clauses. 

I tried editing to keep it rhyming because it came out rhyming but that was taking too much time and effort so I tried , as the book suggests, to put it in free verse or prose. This could use many more revisions.

I am only sharing it here because the poem originally came out here and it came out here for a reason. 

 Climb to Clarity and the Five Hindrances

Only a moment ago I stood before this massive mountain,

determined to conquer its summit ,

to stamp my triumphant foot upon its peek

and look over the craggy edge 

with newly earned clarity,

I wanted to be able to finally see 

all that was perfect and real

in this world  and in me.

Even the early morning light was saluting me,

radiating support from a perfect blue sky

as I braced myself for this adventure.

I stood at the mountain base,

believing I was so prepared  to begin 

until suddenly

the path that would lead me to my destination

appeared before my untrained eyes to be 

so very, very rough and long.

My heart beat quickened. I wanted to turn around.

If it wasn’t for the invisible Sherpa

hidden within my chest whispering, “climb!”

I would not have moved forward.

The climber within, however, 

would do what it was here to do.

Sighing loudly I lifted my hiker above my reservations and

I took the first step to a better way of being. 

 

Hindrance One: Sensual Desire

I took one step then another, after that another.

I walked and walked and walked

until morning became noon.

The sun beat down upon my skin

turning it a vibrant red.

My muscles ached and the blisters on the souls of my feet bled,

still I walked and walked and walked.

Just when my breath took on the heavy quality of the exhausted

and the thirst of a dessert wanderer burned within my throat,

I spotted a caravan tucked into a remotely hidden alcove of shade.

It’s owner dressed in the finest mulberry silk,

and with heavy Gold bracelets clanking together on his wrists,

came out to greet me.

He guided me to a shady table in amongst the beautiful people

who smiled seductively at me as they gathered all around.

He filled my cup to overflowing and placed plate upon plate

of foreign delicacies in front of me until I found myself so pleasured

I forgot that I was tired.

While the drowsiness of satisfaction oozed through my limbs

he sat down beside me and smiled a perfect smile,

“The road to the top is very hard,” he warned me, “full of sacrifice and misery.

Why not stay behind and hide yourself in all the comfort and luxury I can provide?”

I so wanted to lean into his offer, to stay within his safe and shaded oasis,

to sample all the wonderful things he could provide for me

but once again that little voice inside said “climb!”

I politely put down my cup and leaving a small tip on the linen table cloth

I stood up and began the climb again.

Hindrance Two: Ill Will

Again, I walked and walked and walked,

pretending not to notice as the sky got dark above me

and the wind tugged at my hair and clothes

trying to warn me of what was to come.

I squished down the knowing and I walked.

Before long the sky opened up, pouring  down its fury.

I stopped to hide beneath the full maternal limbs of the nearest pine. 

As I stood there shivering and catching my breath

I heard the desperate voice of another cursing at the rain.

Ahead of me squatting on the side of the path, gasping and in pain 

was a fellow traveller expressing his suffering loudly

to the clouds above our head that  paid no heed.

I left my flimsy shelter and ran to his side to see if he was okay.

He just hissed at me under his breath and swatted me away

as he continued to curse at the sky.

I began to retreat to leave him alone with his misery

but he reached out his hands and grabbed my legs

knocking me down to the ground .

He lay on top of me with all his weight.

I could not move.  I could not cry.  I could not make a sound. 

He spat out his pain and dripped out his resentment,

soaking me with his wrath. 

Then when he was done he got up and

kicked dust in my face before he walked away.

Broken and bruised I lay where I was for what seemed

Like a very long time.

 “Climb!” the little voice within demanded.

Hindrance Three: Sloth and Torpor

I got up then and tried to shake the heaviness of the other off

but his weight would not leave me.

The dark cloud that rained on him followed me,

hiding away any trace of  light.

My mind, so full of his darkness, 

lost its will to go on.

“Stop!" It cried, "rest, you are tired!”

but I remembered my promise and  I travelled on,

dragging heavy limbs

and even heavier thoughts behind me.

I continued to trudge the path to nowhere ,

the end of which I was so sure I would never meet.

Every step required an effort I did not seem to have.

I wanted nothing more than to lie down somewhere

and go to sleep forever.

The little voice, so weak but still persistent,

continued to whisper, “Climb!  Climb!  Climb!”

So I pushed past sloth and torpor and I climbed

 

Hindrance Four: Restlessness and Worry 

With head down I planted one foot  and then the other

I walked and walked and walked.

As I walked on, my determination lifted me somehow,

making each step easier

until it seemed I overcame the obstacle and

had a sense the remaining path would be clear.

As soon as I whispered, ‘thank goodness’ through my labored breath,

other travellers came from nowhere to stand in front of me.

Worry and its restless forms surrounded me and blocked me from going farther.

 The noisy, squawking journeymen jumped back and forth like monkeys,

 pulling me here and there; listing all the things that could go wrong.

Chattering, spinning and pulling at my mind 

they tied me in a knot.

Tangled up and  frightened

I found myself once again unable to go farther

I could not seem to move.

In amongst the fear that rumbled in my belly

came the whisper once again, “Climb!”

I untangled myself from the chaotic mess

turned to Worry and monkey mind’s gang and said

“No !I will not let you stop me!”

Hindrance Five: Doubt and Skepticism

Pushing past their grabbing hands,

I carried on and headed up the hill

so sure that after so much struggle

my temptations would be over.

Life had other plans.

Another traveller jumped from the bushes

before me and stood in my way. 

In a voice all too familiar Doubt painfully listed

the many reasons why I would  fail

in getting to the summit at the end of this long and dusty path.

"You are just not good enough." she wailed.

"You do not have what it takes to succeed

Besides what awaits at the top is just New Age nonsense,

it won't give you what you need."

Her words were so convincing they broke me;

they dropped me to my knees;

And I found myself bent over, unable to go on.

I was so sure that this time, it was it.  It was over.

I turned myself around, following Doubt’s pointing finger

for the quickest way to crawl back to the bottom.

And just when I was about to make  my retreat

the sun broke through the cloud, pouring 

the golden healing light of hope down on me.

I was reminded of my commitment and the voice within me

 once again whispered, “Climb!”

I got up for the last time,

I turned myself around and walking past Doubt 

 I followed the trail before me.

It began to so graciously unwind.

 

I walked and walked and walked.

I climbed and climbed and climbed.

Just when my body cried, “No more!”,

the finish line appeared in front of me,

illuminated in the golden red of sunset.

I had  reached  the top of this mountain 

with its glorious scenic  ledge.

 I sat down on its craggy edge 

and looked out with newly earned inner eyes

to see the world in all its amazing beauty 

more clearly than I ever did before.

I seen myself reflected in its depth

and I seen it reflected in me. 

It was all so perfect exactly as it was.

Weeping in both exhaustion and awe, 

I said a prayer of gratitude

for all the hindrances that tempted 

and taunted me along the way.

I knew then that Life was not there to punish me 

but to challenge me,

to activate the inner Sherpa within me 

so I would climb to my freedom... 

...so I could see what I was meant to see

and  be what I always was.

Dale-Lyn February, 2021

Happy Easter

 Easter is meant to be a symbol of hope, renewal and new life.

Janine di Giovanni

Happy Easter Everyone!!  Hope you have a lovely Easter Sunday if you are Christian and a lovely spring Sunday if you are not.  I suppose if you are in other parts of the world it may be Autumn...so just have a great and peaceful Sunday. :) 

I saw a robin this morning when I woke up...out on my lawn which was free of snow unusually early. And I thought to myself, "Awe! Spring has definitely sprung early this year." 

Two hours later it was snowing.  I hope the robins, still tired from their long migration, find shelter.  Of course, they know what spring is like in Canada's Atlantic provinces.  They peek in through my windows and  know there is a reason  I tend not to put away any of my winter/snow gear until May 1.  :) 

It is all good!

I am very tired...very tired .  I have not been sleeping well...related to the biological changes my body is going through, I am sure...as well as the spiritual/psychological  changes going on inside.  I am dreaming about the things I learn and share here.  I am learning in my dreams and I am teaching.  I am reading in my dreams and I am writing.  I am being healed in my dreams and I am healing others.  Quite kooky, actually...but nice.  The gap between waking and sleeping is getting thinner and thinner for me...whatever that means.

I am even more committed to my Life long mission...to establish true peace of mind that is independent of the going ons outside of me.  I am getting there.  I really am. 

Easter is a good time to reflect on that awakening ...The cross can mean many things besides the obvious (the crucifiction) . It can represent the intersection of the invisible through the visible; the spiritual through the material; the spirit thorugh the ego; the deep through the  superficial; light through the darkness; truth through illusion and Love through fear. Hmmm!

Anyway...have a lovely day!

All is well!

Stop Resisting!!

 Stress only happens when you resist life's events. If you are neither pushing life away, nor pulling it toward you, then you are not creating any resistance.  You are simply present.  
In this state, you are just witnessing and experiencing the events of life taking place. 

Michael Singer, pg 149

So what is the answer to every so called "problem" we have? 

Stop Resisting!!!

If you want to be happy and to stay happy...stop resisting!

If you want to have uncomplicated loving relatonships with others...stop rsisting!

If you want a body that is free of stress induced illness...stop resisting!

If you want a mind that is centered, peaceful and calm...stop resisting!

If you want life to get easier for you...stop resisting!

If you want to advance spiritually ....stop resisting!!! 

Events are not Problems

The events you are experiencing right now are not problems.  The people you are confronting right now are not the problems.  The tension or full blown illness you are experiencing in your body right now...is not the problem The thoughts, feelings and energy  that are wanting to pass through you right now are not "problems" either.

Resistance is the Problem

The only problem is your resistance to what is! Because of some past memory and emotion you have stuffed  in the past that is now jammed up in you like the water behind the Hoover Dam and because of your incessant fear and determination to avoid disturbing that water and keeping the dam of your psyche  functionally holding it back...you resist. You resist the energy of those particular events Life is presenting you with that you fear will not fit neatly in your mind, that will cause the dam to collpase and the torrents of water on the other side to come pouring through.  So as the events of today  begin to drip and ripple inside you...you use your mighty all powerful will to say, "Stop!"  You resist them and you push them back.

Resistance actually causes more problems. These things you are pushing back  do not leave you they just back up creating more tension, more pressure and more liklihood that the dam of yours will burst open.  Hmm! 

So the boss lays you off.  Now to most of us that is a very real problem and it would seem normal and natural to be upset by that...to go beyond our committment of happiness no matter what. To see this event as the cause of our disturbance.

But the lay off is not the problem.  

What happened  is you resisted the lay off and the energy that goes with it because you could not find a place where it would fit neatly in your jammed up energy reserves without causing a major disturbance.  So instead of letting ( or being able to let) the energy of the lay off to just flow through you ...you backed up the energy with your resistance  until it caused even more pressure on you.  

It takes a lot of energy to do this...so not only do you risk exploding with the built up energy you accumulate with every thing of Life's you  resist , you risk "burning-out" .  

Events are not the problem.  Life is not the problem. Resisting Life then is not the solution ...it is the problem!

Letting Go, Relaxing and Releasing

Instead of resisting and building up tension...we can use life to let go of all this stuffed and stored energy from the past.  We start taking the dam a part piece by piece and we allow all the "stuff" on the otherside to be released. Then we can allow  the energy of this moment to pass through us. We can be  there fully for what is right in front of us, right here, right now. 

So when we do get laid off...we  have room in there to allow all that energy to pass through us.  We feel the shock, the grief, the loss without resisting or clinging to any of it. We just let it pass though.  We definitely deal with the situation but only after we let the energy pass through.  

We do not "react" by beating up the boss or spray painting a "F...u" on our old desk...We relax and lean into the reality of what is, "I got laid off" and we allow the  energies to pass through. Then when we are clear and centered, we can decide what has to be done.  If we prevent the energy from  passing through......we will only add more tension. We will not be "clear" enough to deal with the lay off effectively. 

Events are not problems...the mind makes them into "problems".  The Lay off is not the problem. Life is just unfolding in front of you  as Life is meant to do.  Things come and things go.  It really isn't anything personal.  

Observe your mind in challenging situations to watch as it makes everything that happens around you  a personal problem. If we do not have the awareness to detach from it and step back and watch it unfolding, the lay off will be about the "little me" and  resistance will come into to play....creating a problem.

You will be surprised to find that in most situations there's nothing to deal with except for your own fears and desires.  

We need to stop resisting Life and simply learn to accept it as it is. 

Learn to stop resisting reality, and what used to look like stressful problems will begin to look like stepping stones of your spiritual journey. 

Hmmm!  Something to think about!

All is well!

Michael Singer ( 2007) the untethered soul. New Harbinger/Noetic Books

No Matter What

 Do you want to be happy from this point forward for the rest of your life, regardless of what happens?

Michael Singer, page 142

Really read this question before you answer it. Most of us would say without hesitation , "Oh yes, I want to be happy from now on!".  But what about the 'regardless of what happens' part?  Do you really want to be happy no matter what? 

Hmm! As you know, I have recently been whining about a dilemena I had regarding a change I thought I had to make right away in order to be happy.  In the midst of my dilemna I had this "aha" moment where I realized that I don't need to make the change in order to be happy, that I should concentrate on being more conscious, centered and committed to unconditional happiness first.  I realized that I wanted to be able to be  happy no matter what as going on around me!  Not saying it is easy lol, but that is what I want! 

No Matter What

What about you? 

Are you saying with all your heart that you want to be happy and are committed  to being happy no matter what? Will you hold your committment  to being happy when the bank forecloses on your mortgage? When you stub your toe? When the kids end up addicted to drugs or in prison?  When the dog gets hit by a car? When you realize that no matter what you "do"   the person you are with is unable to give to you in a way that makes a relationship 'healthy'? When you get the flu? When your loved ones die? When someone tells you off?  When you get in an accident and total your new car? When the workplace you are at becomes toxic and posionous? When someone spills beer all over the  scarf you just knitted and doesn't tell you? When you get the cancer diagnosis? When the roof leaks? When you get fired from a job you were at for 15 years? When someone steals your lawn mower? 

I could go on and on and on here because there are a billion things that could happen in your life to challenge you. Many of which we could not even imagine until they happened. Things are going to happen!  That is a given! Knowing that, are you still willing to add the 'no matter what' to your ,"Yes, I want to be happy from now on..."?

Making Happiness Unconditional

Most of want to be happy or agree to work towards staying happy on condition.  "I will stay happy if this or that doesn't happen." Yet we won't maintain happiness that way. We have no control over what happens do we?  Life is going to keep doing what Life does challenging us.  In fact, once we make the committment to be happy no matter what  Life will challenge us even more to test our committment. 

The mind will step in when things happen and tempt us away from our promise to ourselves by saying things like, "Oh Wow...that is a really sucky thing he did. It is understandable if you are unhappy about that and choose to let it get you down. No one could be happy when that happened." 

I recently experienced several lectures from my mind about how I should feel and react to the things going on around me. It was trying to convince me, in a sense, that it was okay to choose unhappiness in response to the situations I was encountering. Of course our emotions at the time of encountering challenges are perfectly okay whatever they are...we just have to notice them, allow them and watch them pass through while we stay peacefully, and happily centered. We do not have to choose unhappiness, however.  We can still be happy. 

Well you can be happy when that happens or when this happens or when the sky falls on your head.  Happiness has nothing to do with events...it has to do with you and whether or not you stay open to all Life has to offer. 

Events don't determine whether or not you're going to be happy.  They are just events. You determine whether or not you're going to be happy.  You can be happy just to be alive. You can be happy having all these things happen to you, and then be happy to die. page 143

Why Make a 'No Matter What' Committment 

Well if we really want to be happy in a way that sustains us, we need to remove the conditions that Life behaves the way we believe it should.  Life is going to do what Life does.  Events are going to flow in and out of our experiences. Feelings, thoughts and energies will do the same.  We have very little control of it.  Trying to control it is senseless and crazy making and will not bring happiness.  Even when things do go our way and we feel a temporary bout of happiness...if that happiness is dependent on the event it will not last because the event will not last.  

If we want to reach a state of being that is permanently peaceful and joyful, we need to make happiness an inside game, one that is independent of circumstances or people being a certain way. We add the 'no matter what' so that we are truly happy in a way that lasts. 

We also make this committment for our spiritual evolution. 

Unconditinal happiness is a very high path and a very high technique because it solves everything. page 146

It gives our Life purpose.  We partake on a healing life long mission of letting go when we say, 'no matter what'. 

...what you are doing with the rest of your life is already defined-you're letting go of yourself so you can remain happy. 146

It helps us to honor God, The greatest gift one can give to God is to be pleased with His creation ( and that includes all that is created whether the mind judges it as good, bad or ugly). 

And it helps us to get closer to God, If you remain spontaneously happy and centered, no matter what happens, you will find God. 147

How to Stay Happy No Matter What

Okay so we are saying , "Yes I want to be happy no matter what!" We are committing to that and meaning it. So how do we ensure that we keep that committment? 

We start by removing all ifs , ands or buts from our inner pledge by letting go of  our need to attempt to control Life events.  We let life be Life and we keep our determintaion to stay happy.

Three C's may help to keep us on this path: Stay Concious, Centered and Committed

Conscious: Be aware of what is happening around you and how you are responding to it.  Do you notice the energy shifting in different ways inside you as you expereince life events. Once you begin to feel that tightening inside that may indicate that you are about to close...don't! 

Centered: Remind yourself constantly that you are not what is happening to you or the voice in your head that says, "you should be unhappy because of this." You are the witness sitting  in spacious consciousness that is watching Life do what Life does! You do not need to lose your center.  You can be happy here and now no matter what is going on around you. 

Committed: Stay committed to your goal of  maintaining the spiritual high unconditional happiness provides. Be prepared for the psyche's attempt to come in to pull you from the happiness by making you focus on teh events as problems.  Just don't go there. Resolve yourself to being happy no matter what. 

Staying happy no matter what, I am personally learning,  is not an easy game to play but it is a very worthile one.  I am committed! What about you?

When you are done playing with the temporal and finite, you will open to the eternal and infinite.  Then the word "happiness" can't describe your state. page 147

Miachael Singer (2007) the untethered soul. New Harbinger/Noetic Books

Stop Clinging to Your Walls

 If you want permanent peace, permanent joy, and permenant happiness, you have to get through to the otherside of the inner turmoil...You just decide once and for all, to take the  journey by constantly letting go.

Michael Singer, page 136

Hmmm! Chapter 14 of the untethered  soul, really packs a punch.  It further expands on the the idea that we as humans tend to build false refuges around ourselves to make our inner lives as bearable and as pain free as possible. Singer explains again how we suffer when we put so much of our enegy into trying to hold these fortresses together. 

It also expands on the idea that the  only way to truly free ourselves to  experience the full lives we are meant to experience is by walking through the  very pain and discomfort we built the refuge to protect ourselves from. We do that by letting go of the structures, walls, mental schematas, and personas we created to hide behind. 

He explains these concepts a little more by describing  two other concepts: clinging and what many of us would call the  ego ( though he does not use that term).

Clinging

Clinging, he tells us, is the grabbing onto and the holding onto selected  thoughts (which would include memory and conditioned beliefs),  emotions and certain energies as they pass by and through us, in an attempt to build a stable mental structure we can live with and hide behind. Because Life is so unpredictable with its comings and goings, and our "unstructured minds" are even more unpredictable and stormy...we have a tendency as humans to cling to certain versions of reality that will help make sense of everything that is in us or outside of us, that will put a certain order , security, predictability into the way we see the world.  We select the thoughts, feelings and energies that help us to do that and resist or push away the ones that don't.  The ones we hold onto become the bricks that build the walls of the structures,  that define who we are, that create a sense of self.  We build the structure  and then we  will cling to it with all our might as long as we think it is protecting us and helping us make sense of Life. Professionals may call it the building of a mental schemata.  Singer calls it the  creation of "an island of apparent solidity".

Clinging builds the bricks and mortar with which we build a concept of self. In the midst of vast inner space, using nothing but the vapour of thoughts, you created a structure of apparent solidity to rest upon. 

Ego? 

Let's look a little more into this structure we built ( the mental schemata) .  Singer refers to it in many ways: the fortress, the island of apparent solidity, the model of who you are, the focus of a very narrowed consciousness, the false self and a facade. He sees it as an extension of and a very narrowed and limited use of consciousness.  He  does not call it ego.

I have learned over the years to look at it as a seperate entity in a sense just so I could better understand it and disidentify with it. I, and many others, would refer to it as 'ego'. Again terminology means absolutely nothing in the long run. 

What we need to recognize, regardless of what we call it, is that we have built something 'unreal' to protect us from the 'real' .  We cling to an "unreal" mental structure and hide behind it  in a fruitless attempt to avoid fear and pain.  Fear and pain are forever knocking holes in our walls. We are therefore in an endless struggle to hold them up.  We  turn discomfort into suffering. This becomes the focus of our attention.

In the Background

This structure is in the forefront of our lives and we are so focused on it and the drama of holding it together that we forget all about  what is in the background of our lives: the true Self, Awareness, a more expanded consciousness. We are not what we created in front of us...we are that which is in the background, never changing, always watching and never disturbed. 

In order to end suffering we must stop clinging...let go of those things we were holding onto and  fall back into that witnessing spaciousness that scares the blank out of us because it doesn't make sense to our egos/ the structures we built. None of it is solid anyway! 

In order to remember who we truly are, we have to face the inner turmoil, the mess inside, and the fear of falling back into nothing. We also need to   face Life as it is in the  moment, let go and let it pass right through us. Painful...but necessary for our puriifcation. 

We need to stop clinging to what isn't real; stop trying to protect that which keeps us imprisoned and stop running from any disturbance created by what is. 

Instead, you will actually permit the things that disturb your model to act as dynamite to break it up and free you. 

Let the walls crumble! 

We do that by putting our hands down ( no more clinging, no more trying to hold up) .  We do that by no longer asking, "What do I do about this?" when dsiturbance starts putting holes in our walls.  Instead we ask..."Who am I that notices this?" 

You are not that which is being disturbed or the disturbance... You are that  which watches the disturbance.  You are awareness and Awareness transcends what it is aware of. It is as seperate as lightis  from what it shines upon. page 136 

Fall behind and relax in what is!

Your only way out is the witness.  Just keep letting go by being aware that you are aware. 136

All is well. 

Enduring a Zap for Freedom

 A spiritual being feels as though they are always against that edge [the walls/fence of the comfort zone], and they are constantly being pushed through it.

Michael Singer, pg 124

Wild Lexie!

I once had a dog  named Lexie.  Lexie was a wild dog in the sense that she was so full of Life her energy seemed uncontainable. She just wanted to be everywhere doing everything at once.  She would run in all directions, literally chasing the wind.  The boundaries of our yard meant absolutely nothing to her.  The entire world, to her,  was her home. 

Fencing In With Fear

As a pet owner in a neighborhood where the neighbours were more than vocal about dogs being tied and restrained in their yards...I was in a conundrum.  I, of course, also wanted to protect her from her tendency to just shoot across the road after whatever caught her fancy.  I had already lost one dog to  a moving vehichle. I didn't want to lose another.  So I had to find a way to keep her in the yard.

My brother gave me an electric fence which created an invisible barrier around my property.  I would put a collar on her and whenever she got close to the barrier she would get an uncomfortable zap.  Positioned a short distsance from the barrier were little white flags that acted as visual cues and reminders that she was getting close to the zap. The purpose of the fence was to train the dog by creating  enough fear  of discomfort in  her that she would choose to stay within the confines of the boundary.  

Dogs would learn, it was proposed, to fear the zap and thus avoid going outside the fence.  The fear, and the desire to avoid pain would, it was believed, even prevent the dog from going past the white flags ...that is...even close to the barriers.  The fear of discomfort became the training tool, keeping the dog in a limited geopgraphical space...making them comfortable physically and psychologically only within a certain area and making them fear what was beyond it.

Sound like a comfort zone to you? 

We, as humans,  are almost trained in the same way, are we not?  After a few loses and painful conflicts we become afraid of traffic and neighbours.  So  we build these invisible walls around ourselves. We create a small, safe and limited space to live ( at least in our minds). We limit where we can go for the sake of protection and safety.  Fear motivates us to avoid getting too close to the edges of our comfort zones.  

We have been zapped when we were close before...it wasn't pleasant...we do not want to get zapped again.  So we learn to pay close attention to where the white flags are and we don't go past those.  The white flags in our psyches are those inner feelings of beginning disturbance...anxiety, discomfort, a bit of unease, the fear of fear.  They are usually enough to prevent us from getting close to the actual fence.  

If for some reason we walk past these flags in our minds the feelings increase until we butt up against the edge and feel the intense zap of Life .  We may panic and retreat back.  We learn  then to not only avoid the painful zap of Life outside our invisible walls, but the feelings that tell us we are getting close to those walls. Our worlds get smaller and smaller.

We stop thinking that we caged ourselves in and do whatever we can to make this place "homey". We stop caring about what is out there beyond our comfort zone.  Fear keeps us away from that.  We create a nice comfortable world within the barriers and tell ourselves this is where we want to be, safe and comfy inside. 

The Electric Fence Did Not Work for Lexie

Hmm!  The electric fence did not work for Lexie.  She knew somehow that her home was far bigger and more spacious than the little yard we limited her to.  She knew somehow that the world was an amazing place to run in and explore. She knew  that she did not have to stay imprisoned by her fear. She gradually learned through testing  that though it was uncomfortable, the zap she got ,would not kill her. 

I watched her over the weeks we had her fenced in as she pushed past her need for comfort and gradually nudged her way past the white flags. I watched her as she worked her way closer and closer to the edge. I watched her as I clenched my teeth every time she got a zap and there were many, many zaps.  I also watched as she continued to keep going close to that edge and how the distance she retreated  back after each zap became shorter and shorter  until one day she leaned  right into the edge. She just stood there while she got zapped, enduring it, almost as if she was relaxing into it,  before walking right through to the other side.  

On the other side of her other imposed comfort/safety zone...there ws no more zapping, no more imprisonment, no more limitation.  she found herself in this amazing, infinte space  where she could run and play without limitation.  She was free.  And she freed herself the moment that she decided she wanted to get beyond the barrier.

Wanting to Go Beyond

We can do as Lexie did and decide that we want what is beyond this limited version of reality  we created in our psyches. We can get beyond all that mental effort  we have to put into keeping this place comfortable.  We can get past our fear by walking right smack dab into it.  Instead of retreating back when we get those uncomfortable feelings that tell us we are getting close to the edge of our comfort zone, we can do as Lexie did, and keep going.  Then when the comfort turns to a full out "zap" we will know we are at the edge.  We can do the opposite of what we trained ourselves to do when we feel pain...we can relax and lean into the wall.  We will then fall right through! 

A bit of discomfort, a  momentary zap, is something we can all endure if it allows us to get past our own limitations, isn't it?  Lexie knew that something amazing existed beyond her comfort zone, that the whole world was her home and she was a dog. Isn't it about time that we, as the so-called intelligent species... realized that too? 

All is well in my world. 

Readers

 Readers are not sheep, and not every pen tempts them.

Vladimir Nabokov

Well dear readers or dear bots whatever you are, I see your numbers are dwindling again.  Sometimes the stat  peeks are as high as a 100 perday (well that is high for me lol) and now today you are down to 7. And it's all okay! It is a reminder like the stocks I invest in (with my whopping big  retirement fund...sarcasm)  of how all things in life are always waxing and waning...you go up and down, you come and go, you flow in, you flow out and it is all good as it is. 

If my writing  energy were to be dependent on the readership stats, or on your opinion of me...then that would be a problem.  But it is not.  Whatever is pulling me here is bigger than you ( no offense) and it is bigger than me.  So obediently I come and I do what I am asked to do. How many readers I get is secondary to my mission.  Heck I am not even quite sure what that is yet! 

Thank you though for reading.  I do appreciate it.  

And if it just a bunch of R2D2's randomly tapping in that give me the occassional spikes ...I am okay with that too...because it is what it is and what is...is. 

All is well!

Let the Walls Come Down

 If you see a wall and it is protecting you from unending darkness, you will not want to go there. But if you see a wall that is blocking the light, you will want to go there in order to remove the wall. 

Michael Singer, page 116

Dark Walled In Spaces

I have been thinking about my kitchen

I bought the house I live in now because it was close to the house I left when I got divorced.  I wanted to avoid upsetting my children's lives as much as possible.  I wanted them to have the sense that I was physically close when they were at their Dad's and that he was close when they were with me.  I wanted them to go to the same school, ride the same bus, have the same friends and neighbours around them that they had when we were all together.  I wanted as much "same" as possible for them in order to reduce, in some small way, the pain of adjustment.  So I, despite how it made the neighours talk ,  bought a house that was literally only three houses away from their Dad's for that reason only.

When I first seen the house  I was not impressed at all by the kitchen.  Under different circumstances it would have been enough to make me turn around and walk away.  I had more important reasons, however,  for choosing that house.  So I bought it. 

I swallowed hard when we moved in  and did my best to ignore the dark entrapped feeling I got walking into the house through that room.  There were very little windows and no light.  The cupboards were dark and the walls seemed so oppressive.  I could tell that the previous owners, designed it  as such as a way to hide away from the world outside. For them it was "comfortable and cozy". The walls, I suppose,  protected them from the "darkness" outside. For me it was just claustophobic and dark inside!

I  hated that room.  It felt like the walls were embracing the darkness and for some reason I would almost get depressed being in the kitchen. I tried to diminsh that  darkness over the years by adding lighting, and  painting the walls a sunny  yellow.  Still it was just dark.  

I then started trying to think like the builders did ...and appreciate the  fact that it did hide me away from the rest of the world.  No one "out there" could see me or my mess when I was in the kitchen and I could not see them.  There was a certain protective quality to it.  

Still the kitchen left me feeling dark and heavy.  I felt stuck and trapped not only in that room but in my life! 

Wanting Light Over Protection

One day  I looked at the main wall in the kitchen and realized it served no protective purpose what so ever.  It was not even a support wall! Infact,  all it was doing was blocking the light from the room with the big picture window behind it from entering. 

Wanting light, I knew what I had to do.  So I, with help from a carpenter, hammered and crowbarred our way through that wall, creating  a large opening in it for a pass-through counter. The room immediately  opened up, the light came in and it was heaven!  I felt  a spacious airiness and a freedom  I had not felt in a while.  

The Walls We Build In the Mind

Hmm! When we see that the walls we build around ourselves for protection  are only hurting us in the long run...by blocking light and  entrapping  us in darkness...would it not make sense to  take them down or at least open them up? 

We build these walls around our tender parts, like the previous owners of this house did, to create a safe  environment , a comfort  zone  we can hide from the world in.  Yet in our seeking protection and safety because of fear over what 'out there' may  cause discomfort 'in here'... we close off from the amazing light that Life has to offer all of us. We entrap ourselves in darkness and tell ourselves it is safe,  "cozy and comfortable" when it is merely oppresive and dark. 

We do not need to live with oppressive and dark.  We can live in light and spaciousness. We do that by first recognizing that the walls we build around ourselves are blocking light more than  they are protecting and supporting us.  

Then we walk toward those walls, even if it scares the *&^% out of us to do so. We can pick up a hammer, a mallet or whatever we have and begin making holes in that flimsy dry wall our minds provide.  We actively open up the wall and embrace the light on the other side.  

But we do not need to do the demolitition ourselves. All we have to do is to stand there and give  Life permission to be the carpenter.  Let it tear the wall down  for us.

You can get out simply by letting everyday life take down the walls you hold around yourself.  You simply don't participate in supporting, maintaining, and defending your fortress.  

The light is always there we just cannot see it through the walls. We can let the walls come down!

All is well. 

Micahel Singer ( 2007) the untethered soul. New Harbinger/Noetic Books

Hey Mind...You're Fired!

 One of the essential requirements for true spiritual growth and deep personal transformation is coming to peace with pain.

Michael Singer, pg 99

We have given our minds a totally overwhelming job to perform and we don't even realize it.  We go from blaming the outside world for making it tough for us, to blaming the mind.  Yet can we really blame this amazing tool we have been given for doing what we asked it to do?  It is here to serve us and serving us it what it is doing.

Huh?

The Impossible Job Assignment: "Stop me From Experiencing Pain!" 

Somewhere along the line we decided that pain was a bad thing and something to be avoided.  So we gave our minds this big mission to assist us in the avoidance of it.  We told it to go out into the world and make it as safe and comfortable as possible, to clear the path so nothing scratches us or disturbs our comfort. We asked it to manipulate the world and other people so that it or they do not hurt us. 

So the mind now genertaed by the fuel of fear...works nonstop trying to figure things out...trying to figure out how to make us someone that everyone loves, trying to figure out how to make that person there more loving and accepting of us and this person over here kinder and easier on us, tring to figure out how to protect us from all the stuff that is happening around us like the weather, trying to figure out how to stop things from coming in and disturbing us and what to do about them when they inevitably do??

 Our mind, then, has to work nonstop to figure out how to get the world to behavee enough so we feel safe in it! And when we do have pain inside it works even harder to protect us from having to deal with that. 

So it works and works and works to serve us on this job it has been  given by  us.  It fails sometimes...it lets things in that disturbs us.  It doesn't stop the world from acting up or Life from changing. Hmm! And we blame it?

Our minds are not to blame .  We are.

You are the one who is trying to use the analytical mind to protect you from the natural unfolding of life. pg 95

The mind is just doing the job we told it to do. It is doing what we asked it to do...help us run from feeling pain.

How is that working for you?

I know it isn't working for me.  Life just keeps doing what it does...dumping painful experiences in front of me. As hard as my mind works it just cannot stop me from feeling pain all the time.  And it shouldn't.  In order to grow and expand, to make room in our hearts for what is really important...we have to stop running from pain! We don't keep expecting Life to stop doing what it is doing...nor do we keep expecting the mind to succeed in its impossible mission. 

We can instead turn to our lovely, useful minds that are here to serve us and say, "Hey Mind...You're fired!" 

Of course...in this enforced lay off...we are not expecting the mind to shut down, and leave the boardroom forever.  We just fire it from the ridiculous job we have given it, one it was not trained for! 

And not becasue it failed us...it did teh best it could. We just  realize that is a job that could  never be filled by anyone or anything because it is a job that does not serve in the long run.

You do not need to avoid pain...you need to make peace with pain...to notice it, accept it, make peace with it and release it. Only then will you succeed at what is really important...living your life wholly and with deeper purpose.

All is well in my world.

Michael Singer (2007) the untethered soul. New Harbinger/Noetic Books

Grateful

 Everything will be okay as soon as you are okay with everything. And that is the only time everything will be okay.

Michael Singer

I am very, very grateful to Michael Singer for writing this book I am reading for the third time, the untethered soul. I am grateful for those "slush pile diggers"(or whoever they were)  from New Harbinger and Noetic Books that picked up the manuscript and decided to pass it up the chain for publication. I am grateful for whatever that was that inspired Singer to write it and the publishers  to take  the risk. I am grateful for whatever that was that made me pick it up the first, second and third time and realize , "Maybe there is something in here that will help me learn or relearn what I need to learn to go farther on this journey." I am grateful to whatever it is that leads me here everyday to share with you what I learn and relearn from his words.  I am so grateful for the whole process.

Hmmm! 

All is well.