Vivekananda on the Science of the Mind: Yoga

 ...It [Yoga] is true and vast and wonderful. 

In The Powers of the Mind  lectures of 1900 transcribed in his "Complete Works", Vivekananda speaks to the siddhis...those occult or supernatural things the mind is capable of like telepathy, clairvoyance, Out of Body Experiences etc.  He stated that this phenomenon has been an accepted part of India's heritage for centuries and that is how yoga came to be.

These facts, the Hindus, being analytically minded, took up and investigated. ...they made a science of it. They found out that all these, though, extraordinary, are also natural; there is nothing supernatural. They are under laws just the same as any other physical phenomenon.  It is not a freak of nature that man is born with such powers. They can be systematically studied, practiced and acquired. This science they call the science of Raja-Yoga. 

(Note: Speaking of India's culture in the 1900's: you will notice an overuse of the masculine pronouns. He is reflecting his culture when he addresses mostly men and referring to men because India and yoga, at that time, was very patriarchal.)

What was discovered in the "laboratories of soul research" (Yogananda)? :

The conclusion they have reached is that all these extraordinary powers are in the mind of man. This mind is a part of the universal mind. Each mind is connected with every other mind. And each mind, wherever it is located, is the actual communication with the whole world...The real thoughts, new and genuine, that have been thought in this world up to this time, amount to only a handful.

Comparing philosophers to yogis and spiritual leaders (what Vivekananda refers to as religious men): 

The philosophers scarcely influence anybody's inner man, and yet they wrote most marvellous books.  The religious teachers, on the other hand, moved countries in their lifetime. The difference was made by personality. In the philospher it is a faint personality that influences; in the great prophet it is tremendous. In the former we touch the intellect, in the latter we touch life.

I agree with the force of the personality in "spiritual" teachers and leaders being different than that of the intellect and able to pull people in. Of course, I have a different view of personality and get kind of concerned when I look back on history to see how the charismatic personalities of some religious leaders led many people into cults and even into their deaths.  

He goes on to discuss the importance of the personality which I tend to have a visceral reaction to.  I think our definitions of personality differ.  His being that  the self is equal to Self , and mine being that  the ego is only there when the Self isn't. Where I seek the dismantling of the personality, he is calling all to strengthen it. 

In the life of the householder, in the life of the poor, the rich, the spiritual man. In everyone's life, it is a great thing, the strengthening of the personality. 

He states that within what makes up man (the five koshas...starting with the gross outer physical that tapers back into the finest body of all-the ananda body) is the microcosm like that of the macrocosm (the universe). 

The universe of ours is exactly like that; it is the gross external thickness, and it tapers into something finer and finer until it becomes God.

We also know that the greatest power is lodged in the fine, not the course...So it is the fine that really is the seat of power....But if by any science and investigation, we re helped to get hold of these finer forces which are the cause of the expression, the expression itself will be under control....Now, if there is a method by which we can analyse, investigate, understand, and finally grapple with these finer powers, the finer causes, then alone is it possible to have control over ourselves, and the man who has control over his own mind assuredly will have control over every other mind...And all minds are the same, different parts of one Mind. 

The more a person gains control of their mind through yoga, the Greater they will be in terms of their service to humanity.

And that is what the Yogis say, that all great incarnations and prophets are such men; that they reached the perfection in this one life.

Debbie Downer in my head says, "Isn't that what most cult leaders, with these charasmatic personalities, say to their followers...that they are prophets? " ...I digress..

Suppose we can investigate these laws and understand their secrets and apply them to our own needs; it follows that we grow. We hasten our growth, we hasten our development, and we become perfect even in this life. This is the higher part of our life, and the science of the study of the mind and its powers has its perfection as its real end.

As for things like "The Secret" and our culture's use of the "Law of Attraction"...

Helping others with money and other material things and teaching them how to go on smoothly in their daily life are mere details. 

Yoga is truly all about getting beyond our focus on this little life as "me":

The utility of this science is to bring out the perfect man, and not let him wait and wait for ages, just a plaything in the hands of the physical world, like a log of driftwood carried from wave to wave and tossing about in the ocean. This science wants you to be strong, to take the work in your own hand, instead of leaving it in the hands of nature, and get beyond this little life. That is the great idea.

He goes on to question where the limit to the mind's power is. He questions science that disputes the possibility of such things as siddhis:

We dare not say that it is not possible. We can only say, we do not know how it happens. Material scientists have no right to say that things like this are not possible; they can only say, "We do not know."...But if we begin by denying the facts, how can a science be?

Vivekananda stresses the following using an example of a girl who was said to be levitating:

There is no end to the power a man can obtain. ..Now the Indian mind became so thoroughly persuaded that the mind could do anything and everything according to law, that its powers became the great object of study...Different sects of Yogis began to make all sorts of experiments,...The whole idea was to get at the basis, to reach the fine parts of the thing. And some of them really showed most marvellous powers. Many of them were trying to float in the air or pass through it...The power is all in the spirit.

He goes on to say these powers do not come easy. It takes years and years of dedication and practice to get to this level. Achievement is also complicated by the fact that yogis try to study the ever-moving mind and not some stationary thing. 

But this science deals with the mind, which moves all the time; the moment you want to study it, it slips. Now the mind is in one mood, the next moment, perhaps, it is different, changing, changing all the time. In the midst of all this change it has to be studied, understood, grasped, and controlled. 

The speaker goes on to share how long he has been studying yoga...thirty years, spending upward of 23 hours a day on it, sometimes living in silence and solitude for days on end...

And yet I know little to nothing; I have barely touched the hem of the garment of this science. But I can understand that it is true and vast and wonderful. 

So what about all of us non-yogis wanting to be yogis?

Now, if there is anyone amongst you who really wants to study this science, he will have to start with that sort of determination, the same as, nay, even more than, that which he puts into the business of life...so much depends upon the particular constitution of the person studying it. ...so, in the study of this science each one can get a glimpse which will convince him of its truth and of the fact that there have been men who realised it fully. This is the outline of the science. It stands upon its own feet and its own light, and challenges comparison with any other science.

And what about all those cult leaders I have read or learned about in this yogi world?

There have been charlatans, there have been magicians, there have been cheats, and more here than in any other field. Why? For the same reason, that the more profitable the business, the greater the number of charlatans and cheats. But that is no reason why the business should not be good. 

He suggest we listen to all the arguments...but...

...if any one of you really wants to learn something beyond that, merely attending lectures will not do. That cannot be taught in lectures, for it is life; and life can only convey life. 

Wow! That is quite a lot to think about, isn't it?. 

All is well.

Swami Vivekananda( n.d.) 2.2 The Powers of the Mind in the Complete Works. Kindle Edition 

Eternal Delight

 

Energy is the only life and is from the body and reason is the bound or outward circumference of energy. Energy is eternal delight. 

William Blake, "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"

The Realization

Ten thousand functions, ten thousand things, one suchness...it exists of "now you see it, now you don't...here you are and here you aren't," because that is the very nature of energy to be like waves and waves have crests and troughs. 

Alan Watts

The Fear that Keeps Us Stuck

Only we, being under a certain kind of sleepiness or illusion, imagine that the trough is going to overcome the wave or the crest. The yin, or the dark principle is going to overcome the yang or the light particle. And that off is finally going to triumph over on. And we ...bug ourselves by indulging in that illusion. 

Alan Watts

In other words we fear the realities of Life which include: change, loss, and death. We may become consumed with this fearful thinking and become depressed. 

Sometimes Hope Is Needed

We may need hope at those times. Micheal Singer, like me, is not a fan of hope but he does say in the linked video below..."If you are depressed I want you to have hope that you will get what you want." 

How do we get hope when looking at the reality of loss, change, and death? Alan Watts words might help:

You Are that Energy

...death is just the other face of energy and its the rest, not being anything around that produces something around just in the same way you can't have solid without space or space without solid. When you wake up to this and realize that the more it changes, the more it's the same thing...that you are really a playing of this one energy and there is nothing else but that...that it is you.

Alan Watts

Contemplating Change And Reincarnation

...but that for you to be always you would be an insufferable bore. Therefore it is arranged that you stop being you after a while and then come back as someone else all together. And so when you find that out you become full of energy and delight. As Blake said, "energy is eternal delight". 

Alan Watts

Waking Up

And you suddenly see through the whole sham of things. You realize "you're that ( we won't put a name on it.) You're that and you can't be anything else. So you are relieved of fundamental terror...to live without hangups...to drift like a cloud and flow like water....seeing that all life is a magnificent illusion...a playing of energy...and there is absolutely nothing fundamentally to be afraid of. 

Alan Watts

What comes then is living this life, here and now, with peace, joy, and love as we find peace with what is and joy in being who we are. 

All is well

Alan Watts/T&H -Inspiration and Motivation (2024) Trust the Universe- Alan Watts on Finding Zen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBmuvR9QYLs&t=607s

Where It Is At

 

We don't have to go anywhere.  This is where it is at.

Alan Watts

I often wonder if I am doing enough with this Life I have been given.  It is rather "boring" as I make healing, purification, and waking up my main mission. I don't "do" very much and I do not "accomplish" a lot on society's terms. I am not out there seeking fun, and adventure as a means of distraction, either, like I used to.  I no longer see Life as a big amusement park full of activities only meant to "distract" us humans from the need to sit quietly in a room alone. I know better now and do not want to be distracted from my Life experience or that which is keeping me from it...I see the futility in running away from that which was blocking me from enjoying my Life. I am more than willing to sit with it even though it isn't necessarily "fun"...I sit...and I sit...and I sit lol.  

Not much gets done in comparison to what used to get done by this human I call 'me'. I have very little "fun" or "interesting" stuff to post on a social media page since I stopped seeking the doing  of that which promised this ego redemption and a few joyful recesses as a means of distraction.  Does that make sense?  Many of us spend our lives doing and then we seek to have a few few breaks of outer world enjoyments to distract from that which is stopping us from enjoying Life.  Bit of an oxymoron, eh? Using fun seeking to distract from that which stops us from having fun? 

 Yet, Life is still a play ground for the soul is it not? There is a place to go during recess ? Is there not? The experience of Life is meant to be frivolous and fun.

Alan Watts says:

The present moment is a field of experience which is not what we would call instantaneous.  It is much more than that. ...don't confuse it with a split second.  The eternal now is roomy, rich, and frivolous

The love that moves the sun and other stars is frivolity. God therefore might be described as being sincere but not serious...Playfulness is the very energy of the essence of the universe.

So, I find myself with little...and not a lot of doing ...But a being emerges within me the more healing and purification I do. I am not there in my moment as a doer but as a be-er.  I may not be much in society's terms but I am, in my own way, embracing  the beauty and frivolous adventure of Life in its own explanation. I am appreciating and enjoying its explanations.  That learning, that appreciation, that subtle joy cannot be measured by what I post on Facebook.

Even if we are not very rich, and live in a very simple way, never the less...the companionship of other people, the sight of the sun, the stars, the grasses, the sound of water is its own explanation

All is well!

Alan Watts /T. H. Inspiration & Motivation (July, 2025) When you Stop Forcing Life- Everything Changes.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jUDtuWsp9Y

Exploring the Finer Things

 We see a man take up a huge weight, we see his muscles swell, and all over his body we see signs of exertion, and we think the muscles are powerful things. But it is the thin thread-like things the nerves, which bring power to the muscles; the moment one of these threads is cut off from reaching the muscles, they are not able to work at all. These tiny nerves bring the power from something still finer, and that again in its turn brings it from something finer still-thought, and so on. So, it is the fine that is really the seat of power. 

Vivekananda

What the heck are you talking about, crazy lady? 

I am referring to Vivekananda's take on the Koshas.  We do not tend to see where the power really exists when we focus on the "gross matter" , exterior, on movement, action, and the body.  We do not..cannot see that the power controlling all things is at the deepest and "finest" level.

What we cannot see.

There are laws, very fine, which are behind the physical laws as we know. That is to say,  there are no such realities as a physical world, a mental world, a spiritual world. Whatever is, is one. Let us say, it is a sort of tapering existence; the thickest part is here, it tapers and becomes finer and finer. The finest is what we call spirit, the grossest the body.

Here, he is speaking of the Koshas , right? The physical kosha is the grossest (most obvious to see) ...then as we taper down...to the Subtle body, the Mental body, the Jnana body it gets less and less gross...less material and form like...and therefore it gets harder to see what goes on at these levels. All power takes place in the finest and most inner layer...the Ananda body or what we refer to as the "spiritual" level. 

Of course, we can see the movement in the gross; but when fine movements take place, we cannot see them. When a gross thing moves, we catch it, and thus we, naturally identify movement with things which are gross. But all the power is really in the fine. We do not see any movement in the fine, perhaps, because the movement is so intense that we can not perceive it.

But if by any science, any investigation, we are helped to get hold of these finer forces which are the cause of expression the expression itself will be under control.

Vivekananda could not have predicted what they would discover at Cern 100 yeaars after his death, could he?  They discovered this fine material as the source of all power...wavelets that cannot be detected with the human eye creating all subatomic matter which in turn creates all matter. It was affectionaletly named the "God Particle" for a reason. 

Relating to everyday Life

We constantly complain that we have no control over our actions, over our thoughts but how can we have it? If we can get control over the fine movements, if we can get hold of thoughts at the root, before it has become thought, before it has become action, then it would be possible for us to control the whole. 

If we can control that which powers a thought or action we can control everything that happens mentally and physically in our lives and in this world. 

Now if there is a method by which we can analyse, investigate, understand and finally grapple with those finer powers, the finer causes, then alone is it possible to have control over ourselves, and the man who has control over his own mind assuredly will have control over every mind. ...And all minds are the same, different parts of One Mind...

Of course, he is not suggesting we all need this mile long equipment in our back yard...we simply need to start exploring our own minds and that which exists beyond the mind. This is yoga. We can create a better world. 

Now, a good deal of our physical evil we can get rid of, if we have control over the fine parts; a good many worries we can throw off, if we have control over the fine movements; a good many failures can be averted, if we have control over these fine powers...

We simply need to go deeper, depend less on what we can pick up with our five senses and explore what exists beyond that...the One mind shared by all. 

All is well.

Vivekananda (n.d.) Complete Works-2.2 The Powers of the Mind.  Kindle Edition, 

About What I said Yesterday

 Udana jayaj jala panka kantakadisvagana utkrantis ca.

By mastery over the udana nerve current (the upward vital air), one accomplishes levitation over water, swamps, thorns etc, and can leave the body at will. 

Yoga Sutras: Book III: 40 ( Sri Swami Satchidananda, 2011, Integral Yoga: Yogaville.)

Say what, Crazy lady? 

I am timidly peering around the corner to check the reaction of people to my last entry before coming back out on stage. lol (Well the stage of Life in some form of public view). I shared that I had a very weird experience that could be included as one of the Siddhis.  

Siddhis in yoga are simply "accomplishments". When one accomplishes mastery over parts of the body and mind, it is believed that we break down physical world barriers and gain what some might call "supernatural powers".  It sounds so weird when I write that.

I do not think I have supernatural powers lol.  I just had an experience!! Now as I clutch the curtain to look out to see what the crowd is doing in reaction to my sharing I imagine this conversation going on: 

"Did she say she had an 'Out of Body Experience' and some weird dreams about being in another body and trying to save her soul?"

"Yeah, I knew she was a bit off...but that's ridiculous. "

"I know.  This yoga stuff is really, really woo-woo isn't it? It is all a bunch of mystical BS. And she isn't even a real yogi...just some western wanna be." 

"Crazy! She probably dreamt the whole thing and now thinks she is some highly enlightened and spiritual being! Imagine even sharing that with anyone."

These voices may not be coming from anywhere but my own mind lol but I do hear them. In response I say: 

I did have an OBE (a tiny little mini-one) and I did have those dreams.  Were they anything more than some persistent dream state or some type of hallucination brought on by eating too close to bed time? I don't know. Does it matter?  Whatever they were, they were very real to me. (Well a schizophrenic would say their visions and voices were very real to them too...so that doesn't say much about objective reality, does it?) 

It did get pretty woo-woo. The part of yoga that speaks to what happens to our connection with consciousness when we reach samadhi is pretty woo-woo even for me.  I am not seeking the Siddhis (supernatural or occult powers)...at all.  I am not seeking any accomplishment through samadhi! That is not what I am in this for.  Far, far from it. I am merely seeking the "Truth" and the "Peace that surpasses all understanding" through my practice. I did not intend for anything "woo-woo" or "weird" like this to happen.  Though it was cool, I really don't want it to happen again either because I am not ready for it. At this point I would accept any plausible scientific explanation to debunk the mystical out of what happened. 

And yes, I am more than a little "off" lol and I am not really a yogi. I will call myself a yogi some times because I practice yoga but I also try to remove all such labels from my being...Most importantly, I definitely do not think of myself as enlightened or extra spiritual just because I had this weird experience. I just wanted to mention that I had it  and then quickly push it behind me. Sigh! 

So...let's forget about it from here on in.  This is not what yoga is all about or what I am all about here.

 It happened. I shared. It's over. 

All is well

Not Attached To the Body

The body is neither yours, or mines, or anybody's. These bodies are coming and going by the laws of nature, but we are free, standing as witness. This body is no more free as a picture or a wall. Why should we be so attached to a body? 

Vivekananda

I want to share a night time experience I had with you but am hesitant because I don't want any 'mystical woo-woo' attached to it. This experience I had, I truly believe, is something we are all capable of having. Consciousness, I have learned as a yogi, is not limited to the body we are in! Who we are is not the body...It is that which uses, witnesses, and experiences Life through the body. This is what I have learned. Sometimes...learning becomes actualized to reinforce our learning! 

Okay...I have been having some neck discomfort over the last few days. I know it is a C-1-C-3 vertebrae thing and want to make sure the muscles don't clench up around making it more painful or limiting movement any farther. So when I am sleeping and I wake up with the discomfort I change positions so I am moving the neck.  Last night, I woke up on my back at some point. When I tried to move, it was so hard to lift my head. There was so much tension around the neck and head. I took a deep breath and said, "I am going to relax as best as I can, lift my head up, and it will be free of all tension."

 That is what I did. I took some nice slow breaths, lifted up into a semi-sitting position and there was no tension. When I put my head back down on the pillow it hit me like a ton of bricks. "Oh My God...I was beside my body watching it lift up and go back down...I wasn't in it when it happened...I was watching it from the side!!"

I automatically discounted the experience. "I must have been dreaming it!" Once again my neck was very tense and it was hard to lift my head, convincing me it was a dream. I told myself I was going to do it again and if the movement was difficult it was a dream. So I did...I took a few breaths, got very relaxed, and lifted my head again. Again, I sat right up.  There was no tension or difficulty but I was fully aware that I was in the body the second time.

I am convinced I had a mini-OBE last night. I was watching from right beside my body this very relaxed body lift up from a painful state to a tension-free sitting position. I wasn't watching from inside. I was watching from outside.  

Now, there are a million different explanations for this.  There are the mystical woo-woo explanations and there are the scientific, neuro biology explanations. Part of me wants to jump right into this and explore all those explanations...but...another part of me says, "I don't care what the explanation is!! It was cool! "...and leave it at that. I leave it at that. I will not seek to have another such experience, either. One is enough. 

Throughout the night I also had some fairly lucid dreams about terminal illness.  For some type of miracle cure, there were these people dragging their loved ones to others who promised to save the body but keep the soul. I, whatever character I was playing in this dream...not the form I am in now...male maybe?...taller it seems...anyway this form became ill and my loved one...an only daughter... was plannng on sneaking me out of the hospital? one night to take me to this person or these people in order to save my body.  I was terrified and adamant about not going.  I was trying to tell her that this body meant nothing to me...that who I was, was the soul and there is no way I was going to give that up. I must have been unconscious maybe because no matter how I screamed and yelled these truths about consciousness...even calling her selfish for wanting to keep this soulless body alive so she could have company....she didn't hear me or understand what I was saying. I was being taken there against my will. I could see the voodoo like things set up that were to heal my body and the clay pots full of blood (souls?) ...I was screaming and crying "The Soul is the only thing that is real! Don't sacrifice it to keep this illusion of body alive! Let my body die!" 

I am not sure what happened. 

Man...that was a weird dream.  I didn't really connect it to the mini-OBE until now. 

These are not mystical experiences...koo-koo maybe, and I might just be crazier than a bag of hammers...but not "woo-woo mystical". 

I am, I believe having some learning actualized. I am  just receiving this amazing synchronistic reinforcement during the night that what I am learning and internalizing is true. We are not the body. We are the eternal witness standing and watching. Why should we be so attached to it then...physically (as stuck inside it) or mentally, emotionally, or spiritually? The only part of us worth being attached to is the soul, the Ananda body. Sigh! 

Pretty cool, isn't it? 

All is well

Holding Life Gently

 Effort without awareness is chaos and control without trust is suffering...you must learn to let go...not because you have given up but because you have woken up....The more you relax, truly relax not just physically but mentally, emotionally and spiritually you become open...open to guidance, open to answers, open to joy...

Alan Watts

I so want to open to Life. Do you? I have been exploring and practicing self-hypnosis to help me to stay open by helping me to relax enough to float. This self-hypnosis practice is just that a "practice"....it is an imperfect attempt to help this human I call "me" to relax deeper so she opens to the unconscious mind where true wisdom is housed (jnana body) and to the part of us where joy is housed (ananda body). This is not a meditation.  

What is the difference between a meditation and self-hypnosis? 

People are sometimes confused about the difference between hypnosis and meditation. I would say they are very similar states, the exception being that hypnosis has a direction to it, an outcome you decided before you begin, while meditation is more formless. Bandler, pg 106

So, I still meditate...giving up to the formless, directionless, goal-less nature of it.  I also know what it is I am seeking through my practice...purification, realization of, through access to, Who I am at the deepest level. Being that self-hypnosis sets a clear direction, I am experimenting with it to see if it can direct me there faster. (I am not saying it will...I am just "trying" it to see if t does.) Both meditation and self-hypnosis require deep relaxation. It is all about relaxing the body, and then relaxing the conscious mind so we can tap into what exists beneath the conscious mind. 

Self-hypnosis is a little trickier than meditation. It requires getting the conscious mind all rattled and confused so it steps back and says, "WTF?" ...And the unconscious mind is therefore forced to step up to do the listening. There are many different techniques used to do this. Ambiguity is one technique used by hypnotists to do this. This "writer's brain" and "educator's" brain that has been trained to do whatever it can to make things clear to the conscious mind, struggles with ambiguity. These scripts make no sense at all, breaking every grammatical rule know to man-kind. And there is sooo much to learn. Anyway, I will learn it and I will try it.  I share only because of this darn habit I have of sharing what I am learning. 

 I am by no means saying that what I create during my practice is perfect...that it is anything that will help anyone other than me....I just know I am relaxing more as I listen to these imperfect scripts and as I learn about self-hypnosis. It is too soon to tell if it will help me to become more Self-realized. 

Please note: in these videos I make suggestions. It is not my intention to "hypnotize"  anyone other than myself...so, if you are adverse to someone else in your head making suggestions...you might not want to listen. 

If you want to hold onto something valuable, you must learn to hold onto it gently. That is what relaxation is.  It is the art of holding Life gently...

There is a quiet intelligence behind everything and it works best, not through force, but through flow.

Alan Watts

All is Well!

Richard Bandler (2008) Guide to TRANCE-formation. HCI: Deerfield, Florida

Alan Watts/Alan Watts Philosophy (August, 2025) You're Blocking Your Life By Holding On...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5UC06PCWBs

Boredom: "Pervasive Dissatisfactoriness"

 All of  humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

Blaise Pascal

That takes us to: 

What is the next thing I can do or think about? Eckhart Tolle

In the linked podcast below, a questioner asks Eckhart Tolle about boredom...describing boredom as a state of "pervasive dissatisfactoriness". I love that term...like hitting a nail on the head. There is, I believe, a sense of deep pervasive dissatisfactoriness in most of us...that we tend to run from into our diversional activities which include thinking about something other than the moment we are in. Without enough distracting diversional activity we are forced to be in this moment. We are forced to be with this sense of discontent with what is...a sense of discontent with ourselves. We feel bored.  

The mind wants to be stimulated...it is always hungry for the next thing. E.Tolle

I struggle with that dissatisfactoriness...and am on a mission to "sit with it" as I sit with what is. Though I don't necessarily like boredom, I am soo, soo tired of running away. I wrote an article in 2017 on my desire to stop running...or should I say...about how I learned how fruitless it is to run from Blais Pascal. (Ambiguous sentence , isn't it? I am not running from Blais Pascal lol...I learned from Blais Pascal)  Running, busyness, thinking, compulsive distraction hunting does not take this sense of pervasive dissatisfactoriness we are attempting to run from away. A lack of diversional activities is not the cause of this dissatisfaction. The boredom is simply the reason why we are avoiding the opportunity to sit quietly in a room.  This mess inside was there and will be there until we deal with it. 

I woke up this morning thinking about how "boring" my life seems to be. I "do" so little of the stuff I once used to fill my time with. I seem to do so little period. I was once a bit of an adventure seeker, especially in the summer...but lately my days are filled with the same "boring?"activities...meditating, listening to some wise person, writing here, maybe making the odd video, some other writing task: last year it was the ESL book...this summer it is the "You Can Write" children's series (I am not sure why I wrote these things...good chance that they too were meant as diversional activities to keep me running from boredom...sigh! "Something to do." ) I am also reading novels, doing a bit of housework (but not enough...it would take more than boredom to put the fire under my butt necessary to clean this house the way I should, lol), enjoying my time with grandkids which is anything but boring, the odd walk in the woods, yoga practice, yoga class, odd dinner out with family or friends....and of course, there are those Netflix binges in the evening. Sigh! All this is not diversional enough it seems...because I am constantly tapping into this pervasivse dissatisfactoriness inside me. Sigh! I want to grow this ability of being rooted in the present moment, within this self without needing an external stimulus to feel alive...

We need to break through the mental barrier...

The thing is...that is why I am not doing more. Oh at least, that is what I tell myself.  I want to sit with what is no matter what it is.  Purification from that which is preventing me from going deeper is my goal! I do not want to keep running from one distraction to another in an attempt to avoid having to deal with the mess inside.  I want to deal with the mess!  It is a bit of cunundrum, though.  Like I know all that activity I feel I am "missing"  is just distraction that keeps me from experiencing and working my way through the samskara layer of " pervasive dissatisfactoriness" to that which exists beneath it. I really, really want to get beneath it. At the same time, I miss "being busy". 

The greedy search for the next interesting thing...that is the disfunction...Why is it so hard to fall into boredom joyfully knowing that it is necessary to get to what exists behind it?  

It is like I am pulled by two forces. I am pulled by Life...which is giving me all these opportunities to go deeper. I want to embrace and use  boredom as a means to purify. So, I tell myself , "This is good. I don't want to do anything". And in the next minute, I am reflecting on my life thinking, "Man! I don't do anything. This life is boring. I feel stuck." I convince myself not to be bored and find myself seeking something to do.

If we do not run away and stay with boredom...you suddenly realize you go deeper into yourSelf...

...just endure the discomfort of the mind not getting enough stimulus...food

....go through the threshold of the boredom into something deeper...and suddenly you feel alive without the need for mental stimulus...even more alive

Eckhart Tolle

I have had sooo much opportunity to sit quietly in a room alone lately right at the time I began to wake up. A huge part of me knows this "not doing much" is a wonderful opportunity provided by Life and this human I call me to go deeper...to go through boredom into being. That is what I want...to be....it is my ultimate goal. Sometimes I break through that barrier between boredom and that being and it is amazing. Other times I only touch the barrier and bounce back into the mental and physical body looking for diversion again...I am still at the stage of the waking up process where  I keep going from the internal pull to be and the external pull to do. 

Be at ease with the here and now...that is all there ever is...Life here and now...to feel at home here and now...without needing to escape into some mental realm that is not here and now...

What I am seeking to distract with now, ironically, is also meant to help me not distract lol. I am spending a lot of time learning self-hypnosis to help me purify and enhance the meditative state . The study of self-hypnosis is a stimulating diversion that keeps me from the pervasive dissatisfactoriness of my now.  The outcome meant to be achieved through self hypnosis, on the other hand, is a way to get beyond diversion and the barrier of boredom to that which exists beneath it.  I am seeking a way to purify...to get through this samskara layer between the self and the Self so I can settle peacefully into my now. All this learning and practice may  prove to be nothing more than another distraction that wastes my time, that keeps me running from the what is of my moment, and that never takes me to where I want to go. I don't know...but here I am.   

I am not sure how it will all turn out. For now, it would be nice to just feel peace in this here and now exactly as it is, as boring as it all may seem to myself or others. I do see how boredom can be a tool for taking us all deeper. I want to fall through boredom into what is there beneath it. Do you?

I have arrived; I am home...

in the here and the now.

I am solid.  I am free.

In the ultimate I dwell

Thich Nhat Hanh

Thich Nhat HAnh ( 2011) peace is every breath. Harper: New York

Eckhart Tolle (2024) Stop Running from Boredom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRXRnDYwePk

Nancy Daley/ Wisdom Daily ( August, 2017) What I Learned from Blais Pascal about the Power of Stillness. https://thewisdomdaily.com/author/nancyd/

Purify and Relax into What Is

There is no difference between the purified mind and the true Self of man.

Ramakrishna

Most of us have very messy personal minds that are, like my house, in desperate need of a good cleaning. Our minds are full of stuffed and stored junk, left overs from the experiences we had that were too difficult to deal with at all time. This mess has become our "egos".  Remember this is just personal mind.

Personal mind? 

The mind is a thing in the universe we are aware of. It is an amazing thing shared by all.  We, however, encapsulate a piece of this  One universal mind and call it "my mind".  We personalize it. What we refer to as "my mind" is just a lil snippet of this great mind. And man, did we make a "royal mess" of it!

We have taken this amazing consciousness and narrowed its focus down onto this mess of this little personal mind so it is all we see. 

 Reality is an illusion albeit a very persistent one.

Albert Einstein

And as Michael Singer says,

You have done something with your mind that should be against the law. : "I want it to be my way!" 

The start of a spiritual foundation [is recognizing this truth:] "It has nothing to do with you..."

Man-mind = God, and consciousness focusing on mind= man.

From this focus as "man",  we tend to do whatever we can to control the Life that triggers these stored thorns so this stuff doesn't come back up. We select and push away, creating more and more disturbance that pulls the consciousness even farther down.

This does not work in bringing us the joy that is already within.

What do we need to do?

We need to purify...clean the mess inside.  First, we need to stop putting more stuff in, stop adding junk to our messy insides?

How do we do that?

Start allowing Life to do what Life does.  Remind yourself that you are not, never were, or will you ever be in control of Life! Then let Life be what it is and do what it does.  Allow it to dance in front of you...then to blow through you.  

Allow the stored stuff to come up to be released. Samskaras will arise for release on their own and Life will pour through us without getting snagged if there is nothing in here for them to get snagged on. 

So, we can meditate. We can do other practices but the most important practice is cleaning up.  Everyday Life can help to clean us out everytime it triggers us etc. Just let it hit, and let whatever it hits to come up. Stop resisting these triggers.  See the healing potential in them.  Relax into them. Relax into what Life offers. Stay open to all of it!

Relax instead of resisting into what Life offers!

All is well. 

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe/ Sounds True ( August 7, 2025) Transform Daily Life Into Your Deepest Spiritual Practice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBwV1vBAN8Y

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe/ Sounds True ( July, 2025) Releasing the Meaningless Moments that Create the Personal Mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYIipW3pnzg&list=PLyOuAoSmZkKoESr2acNWwhznusbBkKXsT&index=13&t=2s

Growing Beyond What the Mind Has to Say

 

"I have a mind and it says different things at different times." 

Michael A. Singer

Sometimes I am astounded to realize how much growing and expanding I have already done.  It blows me away.  One would probably never guess that this human I call me has done such tremendous growing.  My circumstances certainly do not reflect growth lol...at least not in the way things like the "The Secret" and most Life coaches would measure growth.  I am not manifesting external abundance and blessing. I am struggling.  One could watch me stumble and fall as I make way over all this stuff that has landed in front of me and say..."Wow! She must be stuck and failing to grow." I even find myself saying that to myself sometimes as I watch myself dealing with these challenges.  I do not feel extremely joyful and content with the unfolding of life circumstances either. I conclude, then, that I mustn't be evolving very quickly.

Then all of a sudden I remember the words above. This is just my mind and it is just saying what it is saying.  It is not necessarily the truth! I recognize the absurdity of listening to the mind.  I fall back and gain a different clearer perspective. 

When I create distance and look at how this human I call me handles life now compared to how she used to, I find myself saying, "Man...have I ever grown." My growth is very subtle. Sometimes I do not even see it. Evidence for  my growth might not be what others notice but the objective proof is in how less I react to Life...compared to before.  

It stuns me to pull back and see how this human stays calm and present in situations she would have once gotten all rattled in; how she responds rather than reacts to the pain attacks from others; how open and present she is in the presencce of others who are all caught up in drama, and how "calm" she can remain in the face of outstanding challenges. I also see this never ending free flow of patience, love, and joy energy pouring through in the presence of the grand children...all children actually. She ("me")  can see these amazing innocent little humans forming...she sees that all behaviour stems from somewhere and none of it deserves "reactivity"...she sees how futile and potentially harmful that reactivity is. I "expect" and "demand" so little from others now.  I do not expect other humans to be anything other than what they are, where they are. I don't look to others to fill me up or fix what is broken within me. I stay firm when I need to be but every thing I offer is with this patience, love, empathy, and kindness that I didn't know existed in me. I have this compassion for humanity I never had before.

I see this lack of "attachment" to things this human  was once so attached to: the going ons in the body, the drama of life occurring around, this need to "do", and worry about the future. Infact there is so much less attachment to the future! There is also so much less dwelling on past story. There is this acceptance of the past as being past...and instead of pulling up detail and living in it... all events are so blurry existing only in the background in a peaceful way. I am much more "present." Though I still slip and fall into mind stuff, Iam able to become aware that I am mentally slipping away from presence and I can anchor myself back into the body and the moment so quickly.  There is also such acceptance and reverance for the five realities of Life : aging, illness, change, death, and accountability for actions. I do not seem to "fear" any of it. There is so little concern about what happens to this body or personality. I am committed to using this human to serve in the best way I can.  

There is so much more objective observance than there is this need to get all caught up in drama. I find myself recognizing "drama" and attempting to cut through to that which is important hidden under the drama both in "my own life" or when others express the drama in theirs to me. 

My awareness of and appreciation for the beauty and miraculous nature of Life is ten fold what it was. I, for example,  am so attune, it seems, to every bird song I hear! I stop in my tracks to listen to that or the sound of wind through the trees. I get completely absorbed in the music or the beauty of nature surrounding me.  I want to share that magic with my grandkids and others. 

Oh man...I could go on and on.  I just know that despite what my mind may say at times...yes, I am evolving...big time. Though it doesn't feel "easy" and I am not necessarily "happy" all the time...there definitely is an underlying peace making itself known in my life in a very subtle but real way. Yeah! It is pretty cool. I am manifesting what I desire most! 

I am so appreciative of all the teachers who helped me to get to this point: too many human forms to name but a shout out to Eckhart Tolle, Michael Singer, Thich Nhat Hanh, (so many others), the people in my life (all of them!), and of course Life circumstance for taking me this far. 

All is well.

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe/ Sounds True ( July, 2025) Releasing the Meaningless Moments that Create the Personal Mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYIipW3pnzg&list=PLyOuAoSmZkKoESr2acNWwhznusbBkKXsT&index=13&t=2s

Trusting Life and the One Mind

 You dont need to trust another human being...the trust is a state of consciousness and it is in Life

Eckhart Tolle

I was contemplating those words this morning as I sat here with my tea in the early hour, trying to grab a few minutes of precious peace before my grandchildren arrive for the day. I listened to a podcast and heard these words as if for the first time. Sigh! It wasn't the first time, was it?  I may have thought that thought, explored that thought, wrote or spoke about that thought, but it doesn't seem valid until I hear someone like Eckhart Tolle share it.  Where did he get this thought?

He got it from the same place I got it...from the place all thought comes from. It is One mind...we are sharing and occassionally dipping into or getting spontaneous inputs from ...him on the west coast of this vast country we share...me on the east. Same mind, same thought....different outputs. I may speak or write about that thought and get 15 people hearing it over a few months...he may speak about it and get 15 k hearing it over a few hours. Sigh! Don't get me wrong ...I am not begrudging him his audience.  He earned it.  (I am afterall a part of his audience. :) ) Nor am I saying I need more than 15 listeners because I do not.   I get great satisfaction when I see that number 15...and find myself thinking..."awe...my work of outputting is done with this thought that was inputted into this thinking human I call 'me'," kind of thing. The thought comes in (possibly from words I heard him share before)...I process it through writing and speaking...it goes out...as simple as that.  That's the work. 

Who owns the thought? We all do...whether we heard it or not. 

Anyway, I like these words about relationships and the unskillfulness of placing so much expectation and trust on others to serve the personality's never ending neediness. Others don't make us feel better...we just open to feeling better or close into feeling worse in the presence of others and erronously assume they were the ones that did the opening and closing. We erronously assume the special relationship will fix our sense of not being enough. That, I discovered the hard way, is not how it works. 

Most curious of all is the concept of the self which the ego fosters in the special relationship. This "self" seeks the relationship to make itself complete. ...Each partner tries to sacrifice the self he does not want for one he thinks he would prefer. ACIM Chapter16: V: 7

It is the state of consciousness we must learn to relate to and that state trusts the process of Life not the ego. Hmm!

All is well in my world. 

ACIM

Eckhart Tolle (July, 2025) Embracing Impermanence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiKFwiYZvAA&t=660s

Falling Back Rather than Leaning Forward

 Distance not only gives nostalgia, but perspective, and maybe objectivity. 

Robert Morgan

All is well!

The Message in a Nutshell

 What's the most important message you want to leave your audience with- and why should they care? Every listener instinctively wants to know one thing: What's in this for me?

Oprah Winfrey

Optimizing Deeper Learning and Being Through "Directed Meditation"

Only that which you are consciously aware of has anything to do with your life.

Michael Singer

So then, how do we change our life for the better? How do we find peace with what is as we learn to handle reality? Is there an alternative to getting what we want?

Hmm! 

We, I believe, need to learn to refocus our attention...to become aware of  Life beyond what "little me" desires...to explore consciousness deeper. 

How do we explore consciousness and become more aware of deeper things?

We begin the awakening process which must definitely include looking inward. 

How do we look deeply inward when there is such a mess in there that is in the way? 

We must clean up the mess that prevents us from going deeper and getting to the truth of who we are. We must release the veil of samskaras.We must purify. 

How do we do that?  

There are many, many ways to purify. We need to learn to relax into what is. Meditation is one way to help us do that. There is another way that uses meditation, in a sense, but takes it to a more directed form.

People are sometimes confused about the difference between hypnosis and meditation. I would say they are very similar states, the exception being that hypnosis has a direction to it, an outcome you have decided before you begin, while meditation is more formless. (pg 106) ...

Hypnosis may help us accept reality. It may help us to learn to thrive in it.  

Hypnosis, therefore, can be thought of as a learning state in which we can optimize our thinking and refine our strategies. (pg 109)...

We may enhance the functioning of all three outer koshas (physical, energetic, and mental bodies), possibly, with the practic of NLP. Neurolinguistic Programming is an advanced form of hypnosis that has the power to change neurochemistry.

What makes NLP powerful is that it teaches people how to have more freedom, how to be smarter, how to be more talented. (pg 113)

I am exploring to see if we can use self-hypnosis and NLP with the directed intention of removing some of that veil layer in the way of us experiencing who we really are at the deepest level. 

I do not know if this will be truly effective...I am just experimenting. So I am reading and studying.  More than anything I am practising on myself...over and over and over again :) . 

You change the world when you change yourself. Michael Singer

All is well.

Richard Bandler (2008) Guide to TRANCE-formation. HCI: Deerfield Beach, Florida

Michael Singer/ Temple of the Universe/ Sounds True (August 4, 2025) You Are Not What Happened: You Are Who Expereinced It. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JbPPeIgG_s&list=PLyOuAoSmZkKoESr2acNWwhznusbBkKXsT&index=1

Who We Are Beyond Thought

 Who and what you are is consciousness and it is not yours.

Eckhart Tolle

Who are we when we are no longer in the grip of thinking?

If there is no past or future ( and there isn't)...if you are just perceiving in this moment and you don't remember your name or the stuff that happened in your past; if you don't have a future, say that you are going to die in five minutes...who is this being that is doing the perceiving?

What and who are you when you don't rememeber your past and you dont think about your future?

What is left?

Tolle reminds us that what is left is that... 

which is more truly you than any memory, than the historical person...what is it...that strange sense...that presence that doesn't have too much content...(somewhat paraphrased)

We need to just remember the beingness of "I am" and that all we "know" when we are not thinking is who we are. We are the "I am", without a need to attach anything behind that statement.

Be Still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10

The wisdom the world needs (comes from) being still and knowing who we are beyond thought, beyond time, and beyond body and personality. 

All is well!

Eckhart Tolle ( July 29, 2025) Discovering the Self Beyond Thinking...The Self That is Still (Part 1).https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMVBo-i8fYM&t=472s

Belief, Samskara, Deep-Relaxation , and Freedom

 So, if belief can be so powerful, just stop for a moment and think of the most overwhelmingly wonderful things you could have or do if you take the belief that stops you from learning anything new quickly and easily, faster than you could ever suspect, and simply change it. How would you be if you could harness more of your brain's ability to alter its state, so that when you opened your eyes you created something absolutely wonderful-?

Richard Bandler, pg 96

I have always been interested in the power of belief and I made the connection between belief and how we live our lives very early on.  While studying yoga...I also made the connection between core beliefs and samskaras. I know that purification requires the release of the energy samskaras are wrapped in.  It also involves cleansing the subconscious mind of some deep core belief it has been holding on to. I am now trying to see if we could use the techniques used in deep relaxation , self-hynosis, and "trance" as Bandler refers to it...to  help with the removal of  samskaras, to assist the purification process in a gentle way? I am not sure about any of it so I am just experimenting as I look into it. 

What is the most wonderful thing I would like to have with a change in belief?  Freedom...purification.

What belief stops me from learning [who I truly am at the deepest level]? I am working on that one.

What would I create? A free flowing shakti flow.

That's why I am looking into Richard Bandler's and others work on self-hypnosis. 

I am choosing to explore this method because there is so much I do not remember about how I got the samskaras I have from my past and I do not remember for good reason. people's unconscious minds are very protective; sometimes they make us amnesic for good reason. page 99 I question how I can heal from wounds I don't remember getting?  Self-hypnosis, I am confident, will help.

All is well.

Richard Bandler (2008) Richard Bandler's Guide to Trance-formation. HCI: Deerfield, Florida

A Trance to Remove a Trance

 Why do we hold on so tightly to our belief in our own deficiency? Why are we so loyal to our suffering, so addicted to our self-judgment?

Tara Brach

Though this is how Richard Bandler describes it, I do not like to use the word "trance" to describe deep relaxation and self hypnosis. It has too much of a sinister feel to it lol...I imagine those old black and white horror films where the villain is swinging a pocket watch back and forth in front of the victim. intending to get them to jump off a cliff. Anyway...trance simply means " a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware...is selectively responsive in following the directions of the person (if any) who has induced the trance."...according to wikipedia. So, yeah suggestions are offered in this guided meditation to help you relax into a state where you are more compliant with the deeper suggestion to change your negative core belief for a life enhancing one. 

This is intended for me from me.  It is self hypnosis I am practicing...not hypnosis. At the same time, though, I feel compelled to offer any practice attempts to anyone else who might find it beneficial. I do not want to learn to hypnotize or brainwash you or anyone else lol. I simply want to find any means I can to assist with the purification process...so I am trying this.  Maybe ...you just want to listen and observe so you can copy some semblance of the script in your own words. Take the "me" out of it lol and make it all about you talking to you. 

Anyway, I digress.

All is well in my world

 

2.17k views in 24 hours? I think not!! Goggle stats shows a whopping "O". I would rather just see evidence of one legitimate reader who might have gotten something from reading this, than a bunch of clicks with no substance. Sigh! Am I preferring? lol

By the Sweat of Your Brow?

 By the Sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.

Genesis 3:19 ESV

Most of us live by the sweat of our brow because we decided, like Adam and Eve did, to seek gratification from the outer world instead of  relaxing into our true nature. We now spend these precious lives we have been given manipulating  Life and demanding that it should be a way that makes us feel good inside... It is exhausting hard work and it doesn't have to be. We already have what we need for ultimate peace, joy, bliss, and love inside us but we covered it up with our outer world pursuit of happiness...and we closed to the reality that was unfolding in front of us. 

So what should we be doing, crazy lady?

We now need to get rid of the stuff that is in the way of us experiencing the God-given "more than okay" that radiates from the inside.

??

We need to stop resisting Life when it unfolds in a less than favorable way in front of us. We then need to relax and open up into what is...whatever it is... withoutout preferences or aversion.

Getting what you want is so overrrated it is ridiculous...handling reality however is a different thing all together.

We need to recognize that the stuff we stored inside us is running and ruining our lives.  We need to get rid of it.  We need to purify. Purification has to become our number one priority. I tell myself often, "I can't be who I Am without getting rid of this stuff inside me (samskaras)". 

At some point it has to stop being "all about me".

Stop serving yourself...start serving Life. 

We need to ensure that our life choices are based on "pure" reasons...not just to avoid pain and discomfort. We need to learn to stay open in the face of everything Life hands us...this will help us to purify.  Running away, stuffing and storing, resisting doesn't. 

Don't ask for the things that open you, ask for freedom from closing tendencies

It isn't easy, let me tell ya... I am still wiping the sweat from my brow...but I know now that I did this to myself with my external world focus. I now need to clean up the mess I made inside. There is no other way to the unconditional peace that surpasses all understanding. I am willing to put up with the discomfort required to cleanse so I can stay open to whatever Life offers me. What about you?

All is well in my world.

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe/ Sounds True ( July 31, 2025) Why Spiritual Experiences Are Not Enough. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJvRN99tcdQ&list=PLyOuAoSmZkKoESr2acNWwhznusbBkKXsT&index=1

Summer, Bees, Humming, and Serendipity

Today the summer has come at my window with its sighs and murmurs; and the bees are plying their minstrelsy at the court of the flowering grove....

I was thinking about Tagore's poem, "A Moment's Indulgence",  as I was walking across my lawn this morning.  It is full of life providing clover and the bees are actively flying all over the place, busy sucking up that nectar.  The whole lawn was offering a soft, soothing humming noise as I walked over it. I had to be very, very mindful and  I immediately thought of that poem.  So enthralled was I by it years ago...that I wrote an article on it and had it published in "The Mindful Word". Every time I hear bees "plying their ministrelsy at the court of the flowering grove" I am reminded of that poem. I was saying to myself as I got closer to the house, "I must dig up that poem and have another read." I had such a sense of sweet dedication to life in this silent and overflowing leisure. I experienced a lovely connection with everything around me in those quiet moments moving across my yard. 

Then, when I came in here to check my stats...sure enough out of the 3000+entries I have here...what was read in the last 24 hours? An entry I wrote in 2018 with the full version of that poem on it. No one can convince me that is not serendipidity. ..some sharing of the collective thought stored within the One mind. So, so sweet. 

I did have a question as I was rereading the poem. There has been an argument for over a century about the collection of poetry this particular poem was written in and that which got him the nobel prize for literature...Gitanjali  (Song offerings). Many contemporary writers of that time like Robert Frost criticized that too much was lost or changed in the translation to receive the acclaim it did. Though I do not support Frost's argument (I believe he was a bit racist) I too fear that much gets lost in translation. For example, I wonder if Tagore meant "quiet" instead of "quite" in "Now it is time to sit quite, face to face with thee,".

Regardless, I imagine how absolutely beautiful those poems must be in their original Bengali.

Anyway, I digress! 

Just wanted to share a lovely moment of serendipity.

All is well.

This Blog (March 8, 2018) Hearing the Vibrations of Life. https://dale-lynwritin.blogspot.com/2018/03/hearing-vibration-of-life.html

The Mindful Word/ Me (June 20, 2017) Learning from Tagore: Take a Break from Doing and Indulge in Being. https://www.themindfulword.org/learning-tagore-take-break/

Spirit and Nature Dancing Together

 

Everyday experiences are teaching you every single thing about the highest truth that ever existed  but you are not paying attention....

Michael A. Singer

Your mind, if it is anything like "my" mind, is likely running your Life or even ruining your Life. It is probably focusing down on every "problem"  the human you call "me" is experiencing at the exclusion of everything else dragging you through the mud.

It is really, really challenging for most of us to accept the truth that we are eternal, consciousness, and Bliss (Sat,Chit, Ananda) when the mind is telling us just the oppoiste ...or at least...keeping us very distracted away from that truth.  You might believe it is doing its job when it does this...telling you how to get what you want and avoid what you don't want from "out there" ...but it isn't freeing you.  It is keeping you in a mental prison. It is pulling this amazing consciousness that  you are, and that which could be focusing on so much more Life enhancing stuff, down into the narrow spectrum of the objects of consciousness it is focusing on. It ain't pretty down there.

Your consciousness is addicted to your thoughts, your emotions, and whatever is coming in through your senses

We need to wake up and realize that this personal mind isn't serving us.  There is another part of us that is so much more condusive to our healing and growing. We do not need to listen to what this "crazy" mind is telling us...we can listen to the higher Self instead. 

If you notice a voice talking in your head...it is not you...you are the one watching it...

We can learn to say:

"This mind is causing a lot of trouble in my life and I want to learn to stop listening to it ."

We can also:

Dare to stand up and against the mind...challenge what it says

When we recognize what "ego" mind is doing, see how it has been holding us back in our focus, and decide to "see" differently...a clearer mind, a higher mind, the intunement mind comes into view....

It is that higher mind that we want in charge of our lives. We need to practice letting go of the lower mind and all its distractions so the Higher Mind can shine forth freely; so we can experience the highest truths.

All is well! 

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe/ Sounds True ( July 28. 2025) The Guru Within: Returning to Consciousness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUFqjpv6jQ0

Awarenes: Maintaining the Seat of Consciousness

 

Spirit is not human...spirit is aware of what is human.

Awareness is the beginning and end of the meaning of all life.

Man, I would really, really like the opportunity to sit down with Michael Singer over a cup of tea.  I have never met anyone in my life whose thought process resonates with mine like his does. I truly "get" what he is saying.  I believe he would "get" what I share here. Sigh!  Chances of that happening are slim to none...unless there is some freak meeting when he crosses the border to this side...for whatever reason.

I once thought about even doing a road trip to the Temple of the Universe. That won't be happening now. I won't be going down there. What does the Trump administration have to say about yogis lol? Don't imagine it is favorable. "Anti-Christian" (as if he truly cares about that lol but the puppet masters probably do), "Anti- American"...or I suppose the biggest threat is "anti-capitalist. "   Maybe he thinks positively towards Singer because he is in that favorable economic bracket. A poor Canadian yogi...however... would be another potential nasty annoying fly in his soup...another nasty paper straw in his box of plastic straws. He wouldn't think this type of being, I suspect, was worth his spit and would swat it away or crumble it up in an instant. 

Anyway, I won't be going down there in the next four years.  

It is all good.  I can still listen and learn...while I share what I learn here from Singer and so many others. Sigh!

I like how he described this concept with the zeros. I paraphrased it:

Everything in the universe is a zero...so there is an infinite number of zeros. Even if you multiply them  together, it remains zero.  Meher Baba asked  put a "1" in front of all those zeros and what do you have?  You would end up with a number that goes to infinity. That "1"  is awareness...is consciousness... God. All those zeros are things you are aware of ...objects of consciousness and there is only one consciousness.

I appreciate his understanding of yoga (again somewhat paraphrased):

Yoga is the study of consciousness 

Consciousness is everything...there is no reason for being here on this planet if there was no consciousness.  You could lose your body parts...your thoughts...your emotions...etc and you are still conscious...you could lose all your sensory awareness as in deep sleep and still be conscious....[you could die ( leave this physical body) and still be conscious]. That last part is mine.

And what about the Seat of Consciousness?

You can never figure out the Seat of Consciousness with your mind...the Seat of consciousness is where consciousness is when you are not being distracted...all thoughts are objects of consciousness.

If you touched the core of your being you touched where you are when you do not get drawn down into your distractions...you touch something that is realer than you have ever  touched before

Consciousness is everything...noticing the thoughts without being drawn down into them 

I thought of this as he was speaking:

You are not this ball of muscle, emotion, and thought stumbling around the planet grasping for something to hang on to so you don't fall down...knocking down others and rolling over other things in the process. You are the awareness...the love...the bliss...the life watching this ball do what it does until it rolls back home to where it belongs.

Again he says in paraphrased form: 

The love is always there...the Bliss is always there. There is a peace back there that nothing can take away...the peace that surpasses all understanding...

It is not like you have to get there...you are there.  It was there all along...

It is never about getting what you want. It is about allowing, appreciating, and honoring it all!

You are that consciousness...one with God...

All is well!

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe/ Sounds True ( July 24, 2025) Spirituality is Awareness-Not Beliefs or Concepts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtpnikgRMtc

Confronting Fears

 

Confronting your fears can reveal your strengths and expand your possibilities.

??

Oh, the drama the mind creates.  What I allowed this mind to drag this consciousness through in the last 48 was absolute cra-cra. ...but this internal desire to get beyond such mental disturbance prevailed. I did it! I faced a fear and I went into ER for something that was nothing more than a tiny little abcess in the physical sense, it seems. (Another little abcess was found in the front of the gum this time explaining why it was uncomfortable to smile.) and this action was so much more in the psychological sense. I need to keep facing and dealing with these silly, irrational  fears.  I also need to be kind and compassionate towards this human for having such fears.

Anyway, though the wait was long, I had the positive experience of having a kind, and friendly triage nurse.  Then, I had the fortunate experience of getting one of the best ER doctors I ever met (remembered him from the time my stepson was in with an IE...pretty much saved his life!). I told him everything ( without wanting to mention the people or clinic involved) and he went out and called someone about my situation who agreed to see me the next day and whom, I was told could, do the procedure in the future.  I just felt the load fall off my shoulders. Was treated with antibiotics, had the little abcess drained today, (only think that was responsible for the pinching feeling I was getting when I smiled and not the jaw and palate pain), and got a prescription for antibiotics.  I also was given the reassurance that I  could wait on the root canal. I needed that second opinion. I didn't specifically ask for him to take over...but I am on a "cancellation" list in hope that he will. 

The problem I know is not completely resolved...sigh! This abcess I had drained is not the original abcess (which was tiny too) behind the infected tooth. It is another abcess telling me that there is still an ongoing, underlying infection that is indeed wanting to spread.  I am wondering if  this abcess was there because of infection in the other molar...not the one I am scheduled to have a root canal for? The infection is in the pulp of the first tooth. Is it now in the pulp of the second?  My palate is still inflammed and I imagine because I cannot see...red.  I feel more than one bump back there...small as they maybe.  I am, not nor was I ever, all that concerned about the pain of an abcess or this inflammation...just what they meant...an active infection. I don't want to have this sub acute infection in my mouth for much longer. Though the risks for anyone getting an IE is small from a dental infection, it is still there.  And though a mitral valve prolapse is no big, concerning thing...recent studies in the NJM show that the risk for IE from dental infections  is 7 times higher than it is for the average population.  They are even debating reinstating the health promotion policy of  pre procedure antibiotic therapy for people with MVP. My scientifically centered mind simply tells me that I should not entertain such an infection for long..."don't worry or fret about the low risk, simply do what you can to prevent it." 

As far as my jaw and face pain...this little abcess that was drained would not have caused the amount of jaw limitation I have.  That is something else.  I think that might actually be a TMJ from the clenching I do.  Now, that the little baby tooth is gone...when I clench down my jaws are out of alignment. That could be screwing up the jaw??? 

Anyway, I have no idea what so ever.  I am so grateful for the  doctor and nurses in ER for their kind, respectful treatment. Even more grateful for the great dentist who took time out of his busy schedule to see me today. Grateful for antibiotics. Grateful for this learning that is taking me into a healing that extends way beyond the body's issues. Grateful for the universe and for Life playing out exactly as it is meant to.

Forgive me for boring you silly with all these very boring details about this human's (one of 8.5 billion humans) petty little mouth issues lol. I am going to say "It's my birthday and I can ramble if I want to..."  Now, for a birthday gift to myself...I am going to meditate then nap...maybe I will do a yoga nidra...as I have not slept very well in the last 48.

All is well

Sharing a Fear and Shame Samskara Activation

 Thinking will not overcome fear, but action will.

Napoleon Hill

The way out of shame is to own it, and go on being your best, showing up rather than hiding because of it. 

Lanre Dehunsi

Sometimes it is good to see how samskara triggers work in others. I have a samskara being activated now and I am challenged by it. 

Sigh! I need to face a shame/fear inducing thing and am working up the courage to do so. I know the sooner I do it the better, not only for health reasons, but for my peace of mind. This is taking up so much of my time and energy. The idea that I have to do something for my mouth infection has been filling my mental space nonstop over the last 24 hours. I know I have to do something... soon. I have no feeling in the tooth...thank God...assume the nerve is dead but the gums and palate are red and swollen and I am having pain in cheek, jaw, and ear now.  I can only open up one side of my mouth half way and I cannot smile without pain. Sigh! Of course, a tooth abcess is not going to go away on its own. I know that but somehow I was hoping it would.  I had hope that others knew more than me and they had my best interest at heart...that allowing a dental abcess percolate for five months was okay. Once I accept that truth that isn't the case, that I need help for the body, the mind goes crazy. "It's up to you to do something and you better do it soon!"  

I was challenged to settle peacefully into the here and now since this realization and I know I won't settle until something gets done.  

Shame and fear have come to the surface big time! I want to avoid but I made myself call the dental office today. I explained everything to the receptionist ...from the trips back and forth since April, the mistake in assuming it was my wisdom teeth and my getting them removed unnecesarily, the oral surgeon's discovery of an abcess and his instructions to have that tooth dealt with within a two week period...the fact that a need for a root canal was discovered to be the problem all along and that I now have to wait until September to have one. I explained that I could barely open my mouth now.  I pretty well pleaded to get in to see someone else rather than have to go into emergency but was calmly told "there is no openings for weeks or possibly months". More or less, a big, "Suck it up, buttercup!"  So, ...that just got this shame and fear thing percolating even faster. 

I want to handle this calmly with clear mind. I do not want it "disturbing" my peace. I want peace and clarity guiding wise, inspired action. Instead, I feel temporarly stuck in non-action. Thinking about it must be easier than doing it? I am constantly getting lost in past story and future worry about this situation. I catch myself and try to relax enough to bring myself back into the moment but it seems like too much.  This samskara being triggered is a big shame and fear one built on my experiences over the years accessing the health care system for help with my heart condition, my pelvic condition, my intestinal condition and other things.  Regardless of how or why, regardless if others were shaming me or not (some were, for sure) ...I perceived it all as very, very shaming. I developed an intense fear of more shaming. I developed an intense fear of accessing health care.  It is like a big heavy boulder in my gut being triggered by the mere thought of "going back in there to fight for help for this body." 

I tried to sit with the shame a couple of times. I allowed it to come up and be what it was.  I spoke to it. I was compassionate toward it. I even felt like I was "dealing with it" but as soon as I think, "I have to get help." I am pulled right back down in the muck and mire of little self.  Off the mind goes on another tangent.  I get lost in the tangent and forget my Self...then I catch my Self pulled down and lost...I then pull Self away from this mental drama and this intense emotional reaction.  I realize I am just triggering samskaras...past is past. Its done and gone but man does it feel so real like it is happening now!! Then before I know it...I am pulled in and down again. It is so cra-cra to watch, let alone experience. 

The thing is...I am not overly worried about this body anymore.  I am so appreciative of it and all that it does for me. I want to honor it and treat it well.  I have no grand plans of leaving it any time soon. But I am not worried or afraid of any potential outcomes from this infection. I am not afraid of pain.  I am not afraid of illness.  I am not afraid of death even. I just have a very rational thought, " You have a tooth abcess that was likely there before April. That is too long of a time span! You know the infection from a tooth abcess, if untreated can spread. It does not go away on its own. Waiting longer, until September, for a root canal to have the infection treated is likely not a wise thing to do. You know that something has to be done about it 'sooner rather than later' (as one of the dental hygienists shared on you last visit). Your body. Your responsibility." 

This discomfort will not go away until long after I do something. Doing something for this shame based human that has the potential of triggering more shame is such a terryfying thing. Others would think me completely ridiculous I am sure. When I made the call this morning...it took a lot of self talk to work up the courage to do it (almost like I knew what the result would be). An hour later I felt a certain peace and relief for doing something even if it did not turn out the way I had hoped. That lasted for an hour tops lol.

This is not going to go away until I go into emergency and explain my situation. I keep imagining how no one will have the time to listen or care...that they will likely refer me back to where I was. I fear that so many past experiences will repeat themselves...that nothing will get done to help and on top of that I will be shamed for coming in to a place meant for "real" emergencies. My mind spins off into the maybes. Maybe, I don't need to go in? Maybe I don't need help?  Maybe it is perfectly okay to wait until September? I truly don't know, do I? Do I really have to put myself through all this crap? Is it worth a 4 to 20 hour wait in an emergency waiting room? 

This mind spinning stuff is not going to stop until I do something and that, more than anything else, is why I have to go in. Truth is I do not know what the right thing to do here is. I do not know what will happen. I can not predict what will happen.  Mind likes to predict but it can't.  Regardless of what happens I just have my truth to share. Fear and shame may be doing their thing.  That is okay.  Just fear. Just shame. I cannot ask them to stop. I can only do my best to accept that they are there...allow them to be...and continue on despite them.

I will let you know how it turns out.

All is well. 

A Successful Life

What is it that makes a successful life? 

According to Eckhart Tolle true success is not what the world tells us it is.  It isn't about being bigger, prettier, better, or achieving and having more than someone else. 

True Self worth comes from that place of beingness. It comes from the "I am" and it is not comparitive, It comes directly from realization of the being that you are which is precious. There is a sense of infinite worth or worthiness in there that doesn't depend on comparison. Its Life Itself..the sacredness of Life Itself that you are

What is ultimately the only real success in Life?  It is how conscious you are...how much consciousness is manifesting, emerging, shining through you here and now.  

Eckhart Tolle

All is well!

Eckhart Tolle (July 22, 2025) From Self Image to Self-Realization. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vursb9Stl_c&t=634s

Flashback from 2017: Choosing Being Over Doing

 Don't equate your self worth with how well you do in life. You aren't what you do. If you are what you do, then when you don't...you aren't.

Wayne Dyer

Had such a lovely brunch with friends today. One of the things we discussed was "doing". I had a friend share she was spending more of her retirement time just relaxing. She was choosing "reading and chilling" over housework and chores. She stated that she sometimes found herself comparing her "lack of doing" with her relatives's "active, non-stop doing". I wanted to share that I agreed with her approach and that I understood by referring her to a few articles I had written during the "publishing challenge" I underwent in 2017. (Wrote 8 articles in two weeks and sent them out to see how many publications I would get...surprisingly, all but one got published). These articles were all about the need to "be" over the conditioned need to "do". 

I probably bored my friends to tears by sending these articles along...but I did anyway.  Maybe it will bore you too, but I will enclose links to these articles here just in case you want to have a peek...or not. 

https://tinybuddha.com/blog/measuring-the-quality-of-your-day-with-a-to-be-list-not-just-a-to-do-list/

https://www.themindfulword.org/learning-tagore-take-break/

https://thewisdomdaily.com/what-i-learned-from-blaise-pascal-about-the-power-of-stillness/

https://www.globalharmonycrew.com/how-to-make-the-most-of-your-life-the-24-hour-life/#google_vignette

All is well!

Always Conscious

 Conciousness is always conscious, it is just a question of what it is conscious of.

Consciousness is everything but it is distracted by what you experience. 

Michael A. Singer

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe/ Sounds True ( July 21, 2025) Untethering Consciousness: The Path Back to Your True Self. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqWQLnTa3ns&list=PLyOuAoSmZkKoESr2acNWwhznusbBkKXsT&index=1

A Few Internal Bruises

 

You have to expand your ability to handle the vibrations inside of you until ultimately...you reach that state where you know that nothing ever again will disturb you. 

Michael Singer

Physical Bruises Easier to Handle than Internal Ones

I can handle physical discomfort much better than I can handle that internal discomfort.  I played Pickle Ball on Saturday (for fun) and despite the fact that my ticker was acting up to the point I could barely breathe, my face was still so sore, and my body was aching after a few games, I played full out.  Even when I fell landing hard on the ground and twisting my ankle, I continued on.  After quickly checking for a fracture (have to remember that I do have osteoporosis which has been left untreated since April because of the dental thing) I  jumped right back up to play. I couldn't breathe...had a few bruises...but it was nothing.  If someone during that day, however, were to say or do one little thing that triggered one of these old stuffed wounds, I could have become incapacitated by it.  I can tolerate the physical bruises but I have a hard time still with the internal ones.

The Spiritual Mission 

I am on a mission to learn to handle the inner bruises...to release whatever is responsible for them even if it hurts like heck to do so, I am determined to allow for the release of all that junk I stuffed and stored inside me- that which is making knots of tension and physical ailments in the physical body; that which is forming blockages of the energy flow in the subtle body, and that which is creating great big samskara bruises in the mental body. I know it is going to hurt like the dickens to do so but I am determined. 

Experimenting

I am experimenting with how to do this with self hypnosis.  Self hypnosis offers a quick trip into relaxation. We all know that relaxation is the total opposite of resistance.  It is resistance that keeps us pushing everything back down away from conscious awareness when it gets triggered to come up...thus creating secondary bruising and that "sensitivity" to external events. I am sick of being so sensitive.  

I can't expect  Life to stop triggering me. Life is not responsible for my sensitive reactions. I am. It is just being Life.  It is up to me to handle this since I am the one that created this sensitive inner world with all I stuffed and stored and my determination to resist whatever might trigger it. Stuffed stuff, btw, that wants nothing more than to be released. 

My goal is purification. I want to reach the state where I can remain peaceful and undisturbed no matter what Life throws at me. I can get there. I know I can. I can't stop the triggers Life offers but I can cleanse and purify from the samskaras that get triggered. I can stop resisting their release.

So, I can learn to relax instead of resist when these samskaras start to do what they are wanting to do...come to the surface, be acknowledged, experienced  and then released. I am encouraging their release. A self-hypnosis practice might help. 

Diminishing the Pain Necessary for Healing

Does that mean it has to be painful? To some degree, I suppose, what is stored in pain will come up in pain. But...but I am wondering if it has to be as painful as the original wounding was?  Do we have to relive the trauma that caused the wounding in order to heal from it? Do we have to fall back into that dark abysss of story detail?  

I don't think so. We have to release the energy blockage  from the first three koshas: physical body, subtle body, and mental body that is preventing the shakti to flow freely. That is our goal, sure. I don't think, however, that we need to get stuck in the psychology of  memory recall and reliving trauma, (at least not until we have reached the point of learning to be undisturbed by everything).  That might even have an opposite and deterimental effect for many. It is not the memory and specific life details that need to be released but the energy blockage which is just basically a counter energy to Shakti. 

We also need, I believe, to look deeply into our core beliefs. We do not need to know exactly where they came from but we do need to know what we are truly believing and thinking at the deepest level (of the 3 koshas...the 4th kosha is beyond such limited thinking) to see how those beliefs are impacting our lives in a negative way. We need to release and replace these beliefs with more positive and life affirming ones.  This, I suppose, is where psychology might be beneficial.  So, this approach I am working on is combining physical exercise, energy work, psychology (namely some form of CBT),  mindfulness and meditation, relaxation through self hypnosis and, of course, yoga.  Well, it is all yoga from what I can see. 

Just One Step Forward Toward the Ultimate

This process is meant for the majority of us who still function as personalities, who have yet, to transcend beyond the level of  personal mind. It is not the final goal!  The ultimate goal is to get beyond personal mind to expanded mind, of course. For now, for most of us this transcendence begins with the "psychology"of yoga ...taming the ripplings of the mind. As long as we are full of samskaras...resisting and reacting because of them we cannot get beyond personal mind to transcended mind. Few humans are able to bypass this step and go directly into enlightenment. 

So, here I am working on this guided meditation that will hopefully make this process of samskara release somewhat easier. I am still just experimenting. Where do I experiment? In the laboratory of soul research-my own mind. 

All is well

Michael A. Singer ( July, 2025) Relax, Release, and Rise: The Real Work of Spiritual Growth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5vOdH_e9cY&list=PLyOuAoSmZkKoESr2acNWwhznusbBkKXsT&index=3