All content of this post is from the book "If the Buddha Dated" by Charlotte Kasl, PH.D.
"I'm so worried about keeping this man," Julia says, as she pictures Buddha and her sitting together under the Bo tree. "He's the best thing to come along in years."
"Have you noticed the beauty of leaves on the tree?" Buddha says.
"Buddha! What the hell does that have to do with what I'm saying? I'm upset. I need help."
"Help for what?" Buddha says.
"To feel better?" Julia says.
"How about being exactly where you are?"
"Why in God's name would I want to keep feeling this way?"
"Because it's a part of you - a part that needs your awareness and compassion."
"But what about Tony, what should I do?"
"You need to come face to face with a truth about yourself. There is a big empty place you're trying to fill up with this man. You're clutching to this relationship to feel secure, but security comes from completely letting go of all control and allowing yourself to feel whatever you fear. You are trying to create solid ground under your feet so you don't have to experience being alone, but if you would let go, you'd find that the emptiness you fear is really a still and restful place."
"But what do I do with this anxiety?"
"Do nothing. Sit with it quietly, feel your breath. Then ask yourself the truly important question:
Why are you so afraid of someone leaving you or of being alone? Be more honest. It's the only refuge you have."
"There is an expression, 'take refuge in the Buddha,' meaning take refuge in your own true and perfect Buddha nature. Our refuge is in being exactly where we are - not dramatizing our problems by replaying them in our heads, telling stories to our friends, eliciting sympathy and convincing ourselves that this is a very big deal. Our refuge is in the stillness of being the compassionate witness to our panic and fear - not judging it as good or bad, just accepting the what is of the moment.
I feel anxious. Hmm, that's interesting. What's this about? What am I telling myself? What does it look like, feel like?
Breath. Feel your body. Does the anxiety have color, sound, texture, form? Where is it? Breath, again, be with it. It's energy, just like a cloud, smoke, fire or water. All your feelings, thoughts, and anxiety are just energy. Stay with it. Breath in your frustration, breath out clarity and light to your friend, to all people feeling frustrated in relationships.
If we remember that everything is our Buddha nature, we smile on ourselves, and remember we are now grown up. People will come and go. A new relationship may or may not work out, but we can walk the spiritual path - open, natural and honest - and see what happens. If we realize that our ego creates soap operas to drown out the deeper dilemmas of existence, we can relax, be still, follow our breath and watch our melodrama from a distance. As our fears subside, we come out of our cocoon and once again notice the trees, delight in the smell of fresh laundry or children playing, and come back into remembering that we're part of all that is.
From this safe place, we can remove our masks, look into the mirror and accept this package of imperfections, fears, and blemishes. We remember, too, that our new friend is also a package deal - imperfect and beautiful - no more able to salve our hurts and fill our emptiness than the masks we just hung on the wall."
Namaste, my lovely friends! <3
Friday, October 14, 2011
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Letting Love In
I finished up the amazing book "The Book of Secrets" from Deepak Chopra! I highly recommend it!!
I have now moved on to another enlightening book my friend Kyle recommended . . . "If the Buddha dated" by Charlotte Kasl, PhD. Following is chapter 6 from her book. I was going to share just a portion but it was all just too good to leave anything out!
'Imagine an infant, some two months old, cradled in his mother's arms, nursing . . . adrift in the oceanic, timeless, boundless world of infancy, his being and that of his care taking human partner merged.' --- Maggie Scarf, Intimate Partners
"Intimacy requires an ability to both merge and be separate, to come together and be apart, like oscillating on a giant swing from oneness to separateness, creating a constant rhythm and, for many, feelings of anxiety. We sometimes feel anxious because falling in love and starting a new relationship resurrects any buried feelings about our original attachment to our mother or a primary caregiver. We were once completely merged with our mother and, often unconsciously, we still desire to find that feeling of union. We want someone to completely enfold us and take care of us.
As children we needed to be held and protected so we wouldn't feel cast into an abyss; at the same time we needed to be free to leave our mother's arms to explore the fascinating world around us. This required a mother who could hold us close one minute, and release us the next. If our parents had unresolved problems with oneness or separateness, they may have been indifferent when they held us or uncomfortable when we wanted to be separate, explore interests, or have friends of our own. Our parents may have written scripts for us or seen us as a reflection of their own worth, rather than a separate people.
From her earliest memory, Margie remembered her mother encouraging her to be a doctor. She gave her doctor toys, books on doctors, and endlessly talked about her daughter's future career.
It was as if she wanted to be able to say, "My daughter, the doctor." I don't think she ever asked me what I wanted to be. She also talked about what I ate nearly every day and constantly weighed me - you'd think it was her body. She was incredibly concerned with the status of boys I dated and spent a fortune trying to dress me in very classy feminine clothes when I preferred blue jeans. She was obsessed with me, but never really interested in who I was.
Marcie felt gripped by guilt whenever she explored activities she enjoyed that didn't meet with her mother's approval, and felt incredibly disloyal when she dated a man from a lower middle-class background. Her mother missed no opportunity to cut him down. Marcie's mother fits the classic picture of a narcissist - someone who sees the world through her own eyes, writes scripts for others, and is unable to understand her impact on the people around her.
Intrusive or narcissistic parents give their children the covert message that forging a separate identity is a crime punishable by abandonment. In other words, the parent instills the message, "You hurt me if you disagree with me, you hurt me if you love someone else or won't be who I want you to be." This puts children in a double bind between their natural desire for their authentic self, and their desire for their parents' approval.
False beliefs become ingrained:
"I'm responsible for everyone's happiness"
"The truth hurts people."
"You are going to hurt me."
"Being myself is wrong."
This makes both the spiritual path and relationships very difficult because of the tremendous fear of being authentic or bringing up conflict or even having an opinion. Until we become emotionally separate from an intrusive controlling parent and release the accompanying guilt - which is really a cover for our rage or anger - we are likely to get into distant or chaotic push-pull relationships.
Whenever someone gets close to us we tend to see them as the critical or intrusive parents, and misinterpret their motivation and intent. To talk openly about our fears and opinions feels like pulling fish hooks out of our throat. Instead of experiencing oneness and separateness, we often vacillate between compliance and defiance - being the good child or the bad child, the one who obeys or the one who rebels.
Separating from a controlling parent can feel as if we're being disloyal and cruel. For some, it feels like giving up an addiction. And the guilt - the symptom of withdrawal - can be gut-wrenching.
Releasing guilt requires that we connect with our underlying resentment and anger. This crime of breaking a symbiotic loyalty tie is a necessary one, however, because only through forging a separate identity and finding our authentic voice, can we give birth to our own true self and see others clearly.
Marcie was determined to separate from her mother. While moving two thousand miles away to attend college helped, her mother's voice still lived in her head, and she still felt guilty if she didn't call every few days. With intensive counseling she slowly realized she wasn't responsible for her mother's well-being and that she had the right to love another. Two years later she took a major step in separating from her mother by revealing she as in love with a woman. In the week before she mailed her "coming out" letter she had digestive problems and flashes of anxiety, but mailed the letter anyhow, much to her eventual relief. As the old beliefs became less tenacious, she became freer to deepen her bond with Ellie.
our problem. Hmm, I'm getting jealous, even rageful. What's fueling these feelings? What old wounds are these stories "protecting"?
If you are the one being pressured to limit yourself or give up your dreams to placate your partner, it's important to withstand the pressure and continue on your path calmly, kindly, and with compassion for your partner's predicament. You can let your partner know you're not withdrawing your love, you are expanding your life. Your beloved may or may not hear you, but staying true to yourself in the only hope for a spiritually centered relationship, and it's the only way to stay on your journey.
In any relationship you can notice your feelings when you come together and leave to be apart. Is the transition smooth, free, and open, or is it sticky, wrenching, fearful? Do you often stay longer than you meant to or linger on the phone because it's painful to separate? Do you pressure your new love to be with you, and feel empty when you're alone? Just notice. Stay with the experience. What is it telling you?
As we evolve on the spiritual path, we find a balance between being together - welcoming, present and alive - and being separate, because life is rich either way.
Our emotional experience of making transitions between oneness and separateness parallels the ambivalence most people feel on the path of spiritual development. We want inner peace but we're scared to surrender our rigid ego or interrupt our busy schedule to experience stillness (or the agitation that comes when we attempt to be still). We want a partner, but we shy away from pain or discomfort, or the possibility of loss. We want intimacy, but we don't want to give up doing things our way, or to let go of our longing to have someone take care of us. These fears come from the stories that conceal our wounds.
It might help to remember that at an energy level, win or lose its all the same: our tears of joy and tears of pain are both one energy, the flow of who we are. We can either bargain, hold back, and hang onto comfort and security, or we can take a deep breath, and say take me, and leap into the fire."
That's Chapter 6. Such an awesome book!! I highly recommend it!!
Namaste, my Friends of Love!
I have now moved on to another enlightening book my friend Kyle recommended . . . "If the Buddha dated" by Charlotte Kasl, PhD. Following is chapter 6 from her book. I was going to share just a portion but it was all just too good to leave anything out!
'Imagine an infant, some two months old, cradled in his mother's arms, nursing . . . adrift in the oceanic, timeless, boundless world of infancy, his being and that of his care taking human partner merged.' --- Maggie Scarf, Intimate Partners
"Intimacy requires an ability to both merge and be separate, to come together and be apart, like oscillating on a giant swing from oneness to separateness, creating a constant rhythm and, for many, feelings of anxiety. We sometimes feel anxious because falling in love and starting a new relationship resurrects any buried feelings about our original attachment to our mother or a primary caregiver. We were once completely merged with our mother and, often unconsciously, we still desire to find that feeling of union. We want someone to completely enfold us and take care of us.
As children we needed to be held and protected so we wouldn't feel cast into an abyss; at the same time we needed to be free to leave our mother's arms to explore the fascinating world around us. This required a mother who could hold us close one minute, and release us the next. If our parents had unresolved problems with oneness or separateness, they may have been indifferent when they held us or uncomfortable when we wanted to be separate, explore interests, or have friends of our own. Our parents may have written scripts for us or seen us as a reflection of their own worth, rather than a separate people.
From her earliest memory, Margie remembered her mother encouraging her to be a doctor. She gave her doctor toys, books on doctors, and endlessly talked about her daughter's future career.
It was as if she wanted to be able to say, "My daughter, the doctor." I don't think she ever asked me what I wanted to be. She also talked about what I ate nearly every day and constantly weighed me - you'd think it was her body. She was incredibly concerned with the status of boys I dated and spent a fortune trying to dress me in very classy feminine clothes when I preferred blue jeans. She was obsessed with me, but never really interested in who I was.
Marcie felt gripped by guilt whenever she explored activities she enjoyed that didn't meet with her mother's approval, and felt incredibly disloyal when she dated a man from a lower middle-class background. Her mother missed no opportunity to cut him down. Marcie's mother fits the classic picture of a narcissist - someone who sees the world through her own eyes, writes scripts for others, and is unable to understand her impact on the people around her.
Intrusive or narcissistic parents give their children the covert message that forging a separate identity is a crime punishable by abandonment. In other words, the parent instills the message, "You hurt me if you disagree with me, you hurt me if you love someone else or won't be who I want you to be." This puts children in a double bind between their natural desire for their authentic self, and their desire for their parents' approval.
False beliefs become ingrained:
"I'm responsible for everyone's happiness"
"The truth hurts people."
"You are going to hurt me."
"Being myself is wrong."
This makes both the spiritual path and relationships very difficult because of the tremendous fear of being authentic or bringing up conflict or even having an opinion. Until we become emotionally separate from an intrusive controlling parent and release the accompanying guilt - which is really a cover for our rage or anger - we are likely to get into distant or chaotic push-pull relationships.
Whenever someone gets close to us we tend to see them as the critical or intrusive parents, and misinterpret their motivation and intent. To talk openly about our fears and opinions feels like pulling fish hooks out of our throat. Instead of experiencing oneness and separateness, we often vacillate between compliance and defiance - being the good child or the bad child, the one who obeys or the one who rebels.
Separating from a controlling parent can feel as if we're being disloyal and cruel. For some, it feels like giving up an addiction. And the guilt - the symptom of withdrawal - can be gut-wrenching.
Releasing guilt requires that we connect with our underlying resentment and anger. This crime of breaking a symbiotic loyalty tie is a necessary one, however, because only through forging a separate identity and finding our authentic voice, can we give birth to our own true self and see others clearly.
Marcie was determined to separate from her mother. While moving two thousand miles away to attend college helped, her mother's voice still lived in her head, and she still felt guilty if she didn't call every few days. With intensive counseling she slowly realized she wasn't responsible for her mother's well-being and that she had the right to love another. Two years later she took a major step in separating from her mother by revealing she as in love with a woman. In the week before she mailed her "coming out" letter she had digestive problems and flashes of anxiety, but mailed the letter anyhow, much to her eventual relief. As the old beliefs became less tenacious, she became freer to deepen her bond with Ellie.
our problem. Hmm, I'm getting jealous, even rageful. What's fueling these feelings? What old wounds are these stories "protecting"?
If you are the one being pressured to limit yourself or give up your dreams to placate your partner, it's important to withstand the pressure and continue on your path calmly, kindly, and with compassion for your partner's predicament. You can let your partner know you're not withdrawing your love, you are expanding your life. Your beloved may or may not hear you, but staying true to yourself in the only hope for a spiritually centered relationship, and it's the only way to stay on your journey.
In any relationship you can notice your feelings when you come together and leave to be apart. Is the transition smooth, free, and open, or is it sticky, wrenching, fearful? Do you often stay longer than you meant to or linger on the phone because it's painful to separate? Do you pressure your new love to be with you, and feel empty when you're alone? Just notice. Stay with the experience. What is it telling you?
As we evolve on the spiritual path, we find a balance between being together - welcoming, present and alive - and being separate, because life is rich either way.
Our emotional experience of making transitions between oneness and separateness parallels the ambivalence most people feel on the path of spiritual development. We want inner peace but we're scared to surrender our rigid ego or interrupt our busy schedule to experience stillness (or the agitation that comes when we attempt to be still). We want a partner, but we shy away from pain or discomfort, or the possibility of loss. We want intimacy, but we don't want to give up doing things our way, or to let go of our longing to have someone take care of us. These fears come from the stories that conceal our wounds.
It might help to remember that at an energy level, win or lose its all the same: our tears of joy and tears of pain are both one energy, the flow of who we are. We can either bargain, hold back, and hang onto comfort and security, or we can take a deep breath, and say take me, and leap into the fire."
That's Chapter 6. Such an awesome book!! I highly recommend it!!
Namaste, my Friends of Love!
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Waking Up to Love
Waking up to love has got to be the most amazing experience in my life so far.
No, there wasn't anyone in bed next to me, and no, I haven't fallen for yet another man. I woke up today feeling love for myself, without condition. I felt that love from the Creator/Goddess of all things for ME! I also felt that love flowing from me to everyone and everything in the world. Peace, love and bright light.
How did I reach that point in my life, and how can I stay there?
Every moment is of love or of fear; fear of losing love. The fear is reinforced by our perceptions of the past when we thought we were not loved, by our perceptions of not being loved right now, and by our fear that we won't be loved in the future.
These perceptions of not being loved are based on how we were conditioned growing up, and can carry over from generation to generation as we pass it on.
We are taught that external things are what show us that we are loved. But the external things are imitations, and they are also short lived. We are taught that people, things and situations are what define if we are loved which is the core of our happiness.
People change or die, things are stolen, break or deteriorate, and situations never stay the same. So our ability to be loved and happiness are unstable with this conditioning, and we are consistently kept distracted by them.
That is until we begin our internal searching. The instability of external things leaves us wanting and we will eventually turn inward for the search. The amount of time it takes for us to turn inside ourselves is dependant on how long it takes us to surrender our conditional laws of love.
These conditional laws of love vary from person to person because everyone has experienced life differently. This is another circular pattern that keeps us trapped in fear. We are taught that in order to be lovable we must be loved by external people. We are also taught that to love other people they should obey our conditional laws of love. If this differs by person, and they can often contradict each other, we will find ourselves always letting someone down somewhere sometime. This explains so much of why we often feel so unlovable.
Only when we realize that we are already unconditionally loved by the Creator/Goddess of all things can we truly surrender all our conditions of love and love ourselves and everyone else unconditionally.
We are held captive by manipulation, from our own ego and that of others'. I have heard references of a "pain body", but I think I will refer to it as the "fear body".
Once the fear is replaced by love, the dark areas are replaced with light. There is no need to worry about losing ourselves because the real being inside us is always staying the same. It is just our awareness of who we truly are that changes.
Without the perceptions from conditional love laws, we start to see ourselves more clearly bit by bit through new eyes of unconditional love.
Then we can release everyone else from our laws of conditional love and see them through the eyes of unconditional love.
Then we can release things from our laws of conditional love and see them through the eyes of unconditional love.
Then we can release situations from our laws of conditional love and see them through the eyes of unconditional love.
External things are unstable. Peace cannot be found in instability. The only eternal thing is the internal unconditional love from the Creator/Goddess. There peace can be found.
If we keep it simple, love is great than fear, then all the members of our existence will convert to light from darkness, to love from fear. Our eternal being/soul/piece of the Creator within us, our mind, our heart, and our body will all fill up with love. Love sparks the Creator within us, brings peace to our mind, joy to our hearts, and health to our bodies.
We are the only ones who limit the flow of love within us by allowing fear to dim our brightness, allowing it to clog our flow. We are the only ones choosing to limit our abilities by the conditions of love that have been taught to us. We have formed habits of fear, but we can recondition our thinking to one of unconditional love.
It takes time to form new habits, but it only takes effort to start.
So I got this place by changing my habits moment by moment from fear to love, and I can return to his moment of love over and over as I make it my habit. Maybe it is a high expectation to be in that moment 100% of the time, so I will not judge myself when I notice I am not. That would only be a conditional law of love. I will instead remember what a wonderful feeling it is to be in the Presence of Love instead of the Pain of Fear and return once again to Love.
Selah. Namaste my Friends!
No, there wasn't anyone in bed next to me, and no, I haven't fallen for yet another man. I woke up today feeling love for myself, without condition. I felt that love from the Creator/Goddess of all things for ME! I also felt that love flowing from me to everyone and everything in the world. Peace, love and bright light.
How did I reach that point in my life, and how can I stay there?
Every moment is of love or of fear; fear of losing love. The fear is reinforced by our perceptions of the past when we thought we were not loved, by our perceptions of not being loved right now, and by our fear that we won't be loved in the future.
These perceptions of not being loved are based on how we were conditioned growing up, and can carry over from generation to generation as we pass it on.
We are taught that external things are what show us that we are loved. But the external things are imitations, and they are also short lived. We are taught that people, things and situations are what define if we are loved which is the core of our happiness.
People change or die, things are stolen, break or deteriorate, and situations never stay the same. So our ability to be loved and happiness are unstable with this conditioning, and we are consistently kept distracted by them.
That is until we begin our internal searching. The instability of external things leaves us wanting and we will eventually turn inward for the search. The amount of time it takes for us to turn inside ourselves is dependant on how long it takes us to surrender our conditional laws of love.
These conditional laws of love vary from person to person because everyone has experienced life differently. This is another circular pattern that keeps us trapped in fear. We are taught that in order to be lovable we must be loved by external people. We are also taught that to love other people they should obey our conditional laws of love. If this differs by person, and they can often contradict each other, we will find ourselves always letting someone down somewhere sometime. This explains so much of why we often feel so unlovable.
Only when we realize that we are already unconditionally loved by the Creator/Goddess of all things can we truly surrender all our conditions of love and love ourselves and everyone else unconditionally.
We are held captive by manipulation, from our own ego and that of others'. I have heard references of a "pain body", but I think I will refer to it as the "fear body".
Once the fear is replaced by love, the dark areas are replaced with light. There is no need to worry about losing ourselves because the real being inside us is always staying the same. It is just our awareness of who we truly are that changes.
Without the perceptions from conditional love laws, we start to see ourselves more clearly bit by bit through new eyes of unconditional love.
Then we can release everyone else from our laws of conditional love and see them through the eyes of unconditional love.
Then we can release things from our laws of conditional love and see them through the eyes of unconditional love.
Then we can release situations from our laws of conditional love and see them through the eyes of unconditional love.
External things are unstable. Peace cannot be found in instability. The only eternal thing is the internal unconditional love from the Creator/Goddess. There peace can be found.
If we keep it simple, love is great than fear, then all the members of our existence will convert to light from darkness, to love from fear. Our eternal being/soul/piece of the Creator within us, our mind, our heart, and our body will all fill up with love. Love sparks the Creator within us, brings peace to our mind, joy to our hearts, and health to our bodies.
We are the only ones who limit the flow of love within us by allowing fear to dim our brightness, allowing it to clog our flow. We are the only ones choosing to limit our abilities by the conditions of love that have been taught to us. We have formed habits of fear, but we can recondition our thinking to one of unconditional love.
It takes time to form new habits, but it only takes effort to start.
So I got this place by changing my habits moment by moment from fear to love, and I can return to his moment of love over and over as I make it my habit. Maybe it is a high expectation to be in that moment 100% of the time, so I will not judge myself when I notice I am not. That would only be a conditional law of love. I will instead remember what a wonderful feeling it is to be in the Presence of Love instead of the Pain of Fear and return once again to Love.
Selah. Namaste my Friends!
Monday, September 5, 2011
Right and Wrong Decisions
I am still reading Deepak Chopra's book The Book of Secrets, and there is an awesome section that talks about right and wrong decisions. It really is the basis of so much of our fear in our lives because it seems like we fear judgment from others on the choices we make, and we think they will reject us because of it.
I try to remember that those who truly know me will not judge me harshly, and my true friends will never forsake me because of my decisions. The "Them" that we fear judging us are those that would judge us without knowing us or all the facts. Do we really care what those people think? Those who make judgments without knowing all the important facts? If you wouldn't give them your money to invest for you then don't give them your life to judge either.
From The Book of Secrets:
"Right and wrong decisions: If you obsess over where you are making the right decision, you are basically assuming that the universe will reward you for one thing and punish you for another. This isn't a correct assumption because the universe is flexible - it adapts to every decision you make. Right and wrong are only mental constructs. Immediately I can hear strong emotional objections to this. What about Mr Right? What about the perfect job? What about buying the best car? We are all in the habit of looking like consumers at people, jobs, and cars, wanting best value for the money. But in reality the decisions we label as right and wrong are arbitrary. Mister Right is one of a hundred or a thousand people you could spend a satisfying life with. The best job is impossible to define, given that jobs turn out to be good or bad depending on a dozen of factors that come into play only after you start the job. (Who knows in advance what your co-workers will be like, what the corporate climate is, whether you will have the right idea at the right moment?) And the best car may get driven into an accident two days after you buy it.
"The universe has no fixed agenda. Once you make any decision, it works around that decision. There is no right or wrong, only a series of possibilities that shift with each thought, feeling and action that you experience. If this sounds too mystical, refer again to your body. Every significant vital sign - body temperature, heart rate, oxygen consumption, hormone level, brain activity, and so on - alters the moment you decide to do anything. A runner's metabolism can't afford to be as low as the metabolism of someone reading a book because, without increased air intake and faster heart rate, the runner would suffocate and collapse with muscle spasms.
"Decisions are signals telling your body, mind, and environment to move in a certain direction. It may turn out afterward that you feel dissatisfied with the direction you've taken, but to obsess over right and wrong decisions is the same as taking no direction at all. Keep in mind that you are the choice-maker, which means that who you are is far more than any single choice you have ever made or ever will make."
Amazing! Might I also add that who we are is also more that what any one else decides we are. We have the power of our BEING.
Love to all! Brudda Zen
I try to remember that those who truly know me will not judge me harshly, and my true friends will never forsake me because of my decisions. The "Them" that we fear judging us are those that would judge us without knowing us or all the facts. Do we really care what those people think? Those who make judgments without knowing all the important facts? If you wouldn't give them your money to invest for you then don't give them your life to judge either.
From The Book of Secrets:
"Right and wrong decisions: If you obsess over where you are making the right decision, you are basically assuming that the universe will reward you for one thing and punish you for another. This isn't a correct assumption because the universe is flexible - it adapts to every decision you make. Right and wrong are only mental constructs. Immediately I can hear strong emotional objections to this. What about Mr Right? What about the perfect job? What about buying the best car? We are all in the habit of looking like consumers at people, jobs, and cars, wanting best value for the money. But in reality the decisions we label as right and wrong are arbitrary. Mister Right is one of a hundred or a thousand people you could spend a satisfying life with. The best job is impossible to define, given that jobs turn out to be good or bad depending on a dozen of factors that come into play only after you start the job. (Who knows in advance what your co-workers will be like, what the corporate climate is, whether you will have the right idea at the right moment?) And the best car may get driven into an accident two days after you buy it.
"The universe has no fixed agenda. Once you make any decision, it works around that decision. There is no right or wrong, only a series of possibilities that shift with each thought, feeling and action that you experience. If this sounds too mystical, refer again to your body. Every significant vital sign - body temperature, heart rate, oxygen consumption, hormone level, brain activity, and so on - alters the moment you decide to do anything. A runner's metabolism can't afford to be as low as the metabolism of someone reading a book because, without increased air intake and faster heart rate, the runner would suffocate and collapse with muscle spasms.
"Decisions are signals telling your body, mind, and environment to move in a certain direction. It may turn out afterward that you feel dissatisfied with the direction you've taken, but to obsess over right and wrong decisions is the same as taking no direction at all. Keep in mind that you are the choice-maker, which means that who you are is far more than any single choice you have ever made or ever will make."
Amazing! Might I also add that who we are is also more that what any one else decides we are. We have the power of our BEING.
Love to all! Brudda Zen
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Victim or Co-Creator
I am currently reading a fantastic book called The Book of Secrets by Deepak Chopra.
The chapter I am reading currently talks about our journey from victim to co-creator, and how this journey helps us realize that there really aren't multiple realities, but one. The one reality isn't something that we can see as victims as we are creating our perceptions through our fears of losing love, and the conditions for love we grow up with.
From The Book of Secrets:
"Imagine a passenger on an airplane who doesn't know that flight exists. As the plane takes off he panics, thinking such words as "What's holding us up? What if this plane is too heavy? Air weighs nothing, and this whole plane is made of steel!" Thrown back on his own perceptions, the panicked passenger loses all sense of being in control; he is trapped in an experience that could be leading to disaster.
In the cockpit the pilot feels more in control because he's been trained to fly. He knows the aircraft; he understands the plane's controls that he works. Therefore he has no reason to panic, even though in the back of his mind the danger of the mechanical failure is always present. Disaster could occur, but that is out of his control.
Now move on to the designer of jet planes, who can build any craft he wants based on the principle of flight. He occupies a position of greater control than the pilot because if he kept on experimenting with various designs, he could come up with a plane that is incapable of crashing (perhaps some kind of glider with an airfoil that never stalls, no matter what angle of dive the plane goes into).
This progression from passenger to pilot to designer is symbolic of a spiritual journey. The passenger is trapped in the world of the five senses. He can perceive flight only as impossible because when steel is compared to air, it only seems capable of falling through it. The pilot knows the principles of flight, which transcend the five senses by going to a deeper law of nature (the Bernoulli principle), which dictates that air flowing over a curved surface creates lift. The designer transcends even further by coaxing the laws of nature to arrive at an intended effect. In other words, he is closest to the source of reality, acting not as a victim of the five senses or a passive participant in natural law but as a co-creator with nature."
I will stop there, but there is so much more deliciousness for the soul in this book. I highly recommend it and I am only on page 43. BOOM!
Love to all. Brudda Zen!
The chapter I am reading currently talks about our journey from victim to co-creator, and how this journey helps us realize that there really aren't multiple realities, but one. The one reality isn't something that we can see as victims as we are creating our perceptions through our fears of losing love, and the conditions for love we grow up with.
From The Book of Secrets:
"Imagine a passenger on an airplane who doesn't know that flight exists. As the plane takes off he panics, thinking such words as "What's holding us up? What if this plane is too heavy? Air weighs nothing, and this whole plane is made of steel!" Thrown back on his own perceptions, the panicked passenger loses all sense of being in control; he is trapped in an experience that could be leading to disaster.
In the cockpit the pilot feels more in control because he's been trained to fly. He knows the aircraft; he understands the plane's controls that he works. Therefore he has no reason to panic, even though in the back of his mind the danger of the mechanical failure is always present. Disaster could occur, but that is out of his control.
Now move on to the designer of jet planes, who can build any craft he wants based on the principle of flight. He occupies a position of greater control than the pilot because if he kept on experimenting with various designs, he could come up with a plane that is incapable of crashing (perhaps some kind of glider with an airfoil that never stalls, no matter what angle of dive the plane goes into).
This progression from passenger to pilot to designer is symbolic of a spiritual journey. The passenger is trapped in the world of the five senses. He can perceive flight only as impossible because when steel is compared to air, it only seems capable of falling through it. The pilot knows the principles of flight, which transcend the five senses by going to a deeper law of nature (the Bernoulli principle), which dictates that air flowing over a curved surface creates lift. The designer transcends even further by coaxing the laws of nature to arrive at an intended effect. In other words, he is closest to the source of reality, acting not as a victim of the five senses or a passive participant in natural law but as a co-creator with nature."
I will stop there, but there is so much more deliciousness for the soul in this book. I highly recommend it and I am only on page 43. BOOM!
Love to all. Brudda Zen!
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Hurting People Hurting People
I just completed 4 days of serving on a jury in a sexual abuse case against a young child. It was indeed shocking to enter the courtroom on day one to see a small 8 year old girl sitting on the witness stand. So calm, and sweet, and nervoulsy playng with a necklace she held in her hands.
The days of witnesses, testimonies, and recorded interviews could not have left anyone involved in this trial unchanged. After the trial had ended the judge spoke to us in the jury room to answer any question we had, and it was then that he shared with us that the amount of abuse that exists is unfortunately higher than what the public is made aware of.
Our society is made up of hurting people who are hurting people, who continue the chains of hurting more people. I have so many friends and individuals that have come across my path that have exerienced this first hand. The amazing thing is that so many of these individuals have chosen to be powerful individuals who are breaking the chains!
Everyone included in this situations, and everyone included in this trial, are faced with a choice of what they will do with the flood of data to their senses. There is a chance of healing. There is a choice of healing.
"I send light and love to all those children, both those in big and small bodies, who have been emotionally or physically abused. Let them feel Your unconditional love, and know that they are special amazing beings deserving of ALL love! Let their scars only be a reminder that the present is full of love for them."
The days of witnesses, testimonies, and recorded interviews could not have left anyone involved in this trial unchanged. After the trial had ended the judge spoke to us in the jury room to answer any question we had, and it was then that he shared with us that the amount of abuse that exists is unfortunately higher than what the public is made aware of.
Our society is made up of hurting people who are hurting people, who continue the chains of hurting more people. I have so many friends and individuals that have come across my path that have exerienced this first hand. The amazing thing is that so many of these individuals have chosen to be powerful individuals who are breaking the chains!
Everyone included in this situations, and everyone included in this trial, are faced with a choice of what they will do with the flood of data to their senses. There is a chance of healing. There is a choice of healing.
"I send light and love to all those children, both those in big and small bodies, who have been emotionally or physically abused. Let them feel Your unconditional love, and know that they are special amazing beings deserving of ALL love! Let their scars only be a reminder that the present is full of love for them."
Monday, July 25, 2011
Forgetting To Laugh
I am reading the Course in Miracles, and it mentions that this reality was created when the Creator for a moment forgot to laugh. It's where our seriousness and fear came into being as we felt we needed to be separate from the Great Sea of Love to protect and control everything around us.
How true it is when we get all tasky and focusing on being acceptable and lovable that we get cranky and defensive and forget to laugh. We let fear become our master instead of making a choice moment by moment to ride this wave of life with love.
If we can remember who we truly are on the inside instead of focusing on this body vehicle we would fear a lot less. Behind the tinted windows of all these vehicles we are riding around in are the true beings that are behind the wheel. We are powerful whole complete spiritual beings that need nothing to make them lovable or acceptable.
If we can come back to this foundation, then we can find that joy again within and belt out a healthy laugh over and over again as we enjoy the Now. No fear of the past, and no fear in the future. We need nothing to fulfill us because we are complete already. A new habit needs to be formed, where we choose to respond to life with love instead of reacting with fear.
It takes time to form a new habit. It is important to not judge ourselves, and when we realize we have focused back on fear we just correct ourselves focusing back on love. Soon the time in between these necessary corrections becomes greater and greater and greater until it becomes our new habit.
All it takes is the choice to start.
How true it is when we get all tasky and focusing on being acceptable and lovable that we get cranky and defensive and forget to laugh. We let fear become our master instead of making a choice moment by moment to ride this wave of life with love.
If we can remember who we truly are on the inside instead of focusing on this body vehicle we would fear a lot less. Behind the tinted windows of all these vehicles we are riding around in are the true beings that are behind the wheel. We are powerful whole complete spiritual beings that need nothing to make them lovable or acceptable.
If we can come back to this foundation, then we can find that joy again within and belt out a healthy laugh over and over again as we enjoy the Now. No fear of the past, and no fear in the future. We need nothing to fulfill us because we are complete already. A new habit needs to be formed, where we choose to respond to life with love instead of reacting with fear.
It takes time to form a new habit. It is important to not judge ourselves, and when we realize we have focused back on fear we just correct ourselves focusing back on love. Soon the time in between these necessary corrections becomes greater and greater and greater until it becomes our new habit.
All it takes is the choice to start.
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