Zen Biology Lesson for Enlightenment

Interesting video for those interested in going beyond the mind/personality reality. But the question arises, who or what is it that chooses to watch the mind? Or is it the mind that chooses to watch itself? Is not the will part of mind/personality instrument?

Honesty

Of course, honesty starts with being honest with ourselves. We want to believe this or that because our emotions demand it, but that is just a lie we are telling ourselves to temporarily appease those emotions.

The truth is what sets us free to enjoy and love all that life has to offer.  If we cannot love all that life has to offer then someplace we are not being honest with ourelves.

As one seeks this truth they sooner or later discover that they can't "know" anything of the past or future, and that best they can only "know" the present that is here and now.  Knowing the present that is here and now is called Gnosticism.  Admitting that we can't know the past or future and becoming comfortable with aht is called mysticism.

It is really had to be honest even with ourselves when the whole world around us is being dishonest with itself and encouraging us to be dishonest with ourelves.  It is also hard because nobody really want to ALWAYS be totally honest with themselves, for the drama of the illusion I so much fun and brings so much vitality to the life experience. 

Getting free to love what life has to offer takes a radical sense of personal honesty, honest with ourselves first and with the world secondly.  But society has encourages us and we now have very deeply engrained habits of being dishonest with ourselves and with the world.  Until a person can see this and can see how that dishonesty is hurting them and keeping them trapped in a vicious cycle of self abuse they will continue this unhealthy habit.

As children we are taught to believe that others are responsible for our emotional reactions.  It is just part of the culture, there is no one to blame for that, not even ourselves.  But now that we are aware of how unhealthy this habit is we do have a choice to either continue with this unhealthy habit and perpetuate the cycle of suffering or we can choose to change our ways of thinking and our habitual reactions to those thoughts. 

Emotional healing is the process of recognizing that our emotions are a product of our lack of clarity or honest TO OURSELVES and practicing radical honesty without ourselves which keeps us in the present moment, the here and now.  The practice 'heals' the habitual emotional reaction that causes us so much pain and suffering.  We then begin to relax and stop injuring ourselves with our emotional reactions to the thoughts in our head.  RELAXING around our thoughts is the key to healing ourselves emotionally and allowing the truth to do it perfect task.

When people fear honesty and openness then they are closed to true love.  The more problems you have in relationships the less honesty you are having.  Relationships and life can be perfect when you are perfectly honest.  Of course, we must recognize that life offers us ups and downs and that we cannot always be totally honesty.  We are going to go through times when we say things that are dishonest, where we do not even know the truth ourselves.  We will say one thing and discover later that they truth was something else.

When we realize we have been dishonest and have the courage to come back and admit that then the other people will begin to trust us and that we will be able to work things out even if we can't at this moment.

Spiritualiy Versus Religion

SPIRITUALITY SAYS THAT GOD IS WITHIN US AND THAT WE DON'T NEED ANYONE ELSE TO MAKE THAT DIVINE CONNECTION FOR US

RELIGION SAYS THAT WE ARE SEPARATED FROM GOD AND THAT WE NEED "THEM" TO MAKE THAT DIVINE CONNECTION SPIRITUALITY SAYS THAT WE ARE FREE TO MAKE CHOICES ON OUR OWN AND THAT WE MUST TAKE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR ACTIONS RELIGION SAYS WE MUST MAKE THEIR CHOICES AND ACT THEIR WAY THE THEME OF SPIRITUALITY IS UNCONDITIONAL LOVE THE THEME OF RELIGION IS FEAR AND GUILT SPIRITUALITY DOES NOT REQUIRE US TO MAKE DONATIONS RELIGION HAS BECOME BIG BUSINESS SPIRITUALITY SAYS THERE IS NO HELL, NO JUDGMENT, NO ANGRY GOD... THAT WE ARE LOVED UNCONDITIONALLY RELIGION SAYS THERE IS A HELL, GOD GETS ANGRY AND JUDGES US... THEREFORE, WE ARE NOT LOVED UNCONDITIONALLY SPIRITUALITY SAYS WE ARE FREE TO CHOOSE OUR OWN PATH TO GOD RELIGION COMMANDS US TO DO IT THEIR WAY SPIRITUALITY SAYS WE GO TO GOD TO LIGHTEN OUR BURDEN RELIGION HAS TAUGHT US TO FEAR THEIR GOD SPIRITUALITY SAYS WE SHOULD NOT BE ASHAMED OF OUR SEXUALITY... THAT IT SHOULD BE A SACRED CELEBRATION OF LOVE RELIGION HAS TAUGHT US TO FEEL ASHAMED, GUILTY AND DIRTY ABOUT OUR SEXUALITY SPIRITUALITY TEACHES US TO HONOR AND RESPECT MOTHER EARTH RELIGION HAS TOLD US TO "BE THOU FRUITFUL, MULTIPLY AND SUBDUE THE EARTH" I REPEAT... "SUBDUE THE EARTH" SPIRITUALITY REMINDS US THAT WE ARE ONE WITH GOD AND ONE WITH EACH OTHER RELIGION TEACHES DISUNITY AND SEPARATION WHICH IS THE OPPOSITE OF GOD SPIRITUALITY SAYS GOD IS WITHIN RELIGION SAYS HE IS IN HEAVEN AND THAT "THEY" ARE THE ONLY INTERMEDIARIES FOR US SPIRITUALITY SAYS WE ARE BORN IN INNOCENCE AND PURITY RELIGION SAYS WE ARE BORN WITH SIN SPIRITUALITY TEACHES THAT WE ARE ON A LONG SPIRITUAL ADVENTURE AND JOURNEY WHICH WILL ULTIMATELY END BY REUNITING WITH OUR SOURCE RELIGION SAYS WE'VE GOT ONE LIFE TO GET IT ALL RIGHT AND THERE IS NOTHING BUT HEAVEN OR HELL AFTER THAT SPIRITUALITY SAYS WE ARE FREE TO EXPRESS RELIGION GAVE US THE DREADED INQUISITION SPIRITUALITY TEACHES UNCONDITIONAL LOVE FOR ALL RELIGION GAVE US THE CRUSADES IN WHICH MANY WERE KILLED AND SLAUGHTERED IN THE NAME OF GOD SPIRITUALITY TEACHES THAT WE SHOULD LOVE ONE ANOTHER UNCONDITIONALLY AND ALWAYS HONOR THE RIGHTS AND CHOICES OF OTHERS RELIGION TREATED NATIVE AMERICANS, THE MAYANS AND OTHER INDIGENOUS CULTURES AS SAVAGE PRIMITIVES WHO "MUST BE SAVED" SPIRITUALITY TEACHES PEACE AND HARMONY RELIGION HAS CAUSED MORE WARS AND MORE KILLING THAN ANY OTHER REASON SPIRITUALITY SAYS RESPECT ALL LIVING THINGS I NEVER ONCE HEARD ANY RELIGION SAY STOP SLAUGHTERING MILLIONS OF TREES EVERY YEAR FOR CHRIST'S BIRTHDAY SPIRITUALITY TEACHES US TO HAVE FAITH IN OURSELVES RELIGION TEACHES US TO HAVE FAITH IN THEM SPIRITUALITY SAYS WE HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS... THAT WE CAN FIND THEM BY "GOING WITHIN" RELIGION TEACHES US THAT IT HAS ALL THE ANSWERS AND ONLY ITS ANSWERS ARE THE RIGHT ONES SPIRITUALITY TEACHES US TO SEARCH FOR THE UNIVERSAL TRUTHS AND OUR HEARTS WILL TELL US WHEN WE HAVE FOUND THEM RELIGION TEACHES WE HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO ACCEPT THEIR VERSION OF THE TRUTH   WHICH ONE FEELS BETTER TO YOU? SPIRITUALITY OR RELIGION? GO TO YOUR HEART FOR THE ANSWER IT WILL NEVER LIE TO YOU Original author unknown but appreciated

How the bailout package works

I now understand how bail outs benefit everyone:

Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

"One day a rich German tourist is driving through the town, stops at the local
hotel and lays a €100 note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to
inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.

"The owner gives him several keys and, as soon as the visitor has walked
upstairs, the hotelier grabs the €100 note and runs next door to pay his debt to
the butcher. The butcher takes the €100 note and runs down the street to repay
his debt to the pig farmer.

"The pig farmer takes the €100 note and heads off to pay his bill at the
supplier of feed and fuel. The guy at the Farmers' Co-op takes the €100 note and
runs to pay his drinks bill at the pub. The pub owner slips the money along to
the local prostitute drinking at the bar, who has also been facing hard times
and has had to offer him 'services' on credit.

"The hooker then rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill to the hotel
owner with the €100 note. The hotel proprietor then places the €100 note back on
the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything.

"At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, picks up the €100 note,
states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town.

"No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is
now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism.

"And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how the bailout package works."

Judgment and the Mystic

I like judgment.  I like to judge and to be judged.  As a mystic who is comfortable with the reality of the unknown or the mystery of life, I am free to PLAY with pretending that I know something and to judge based on that knowledge.  I don’t know anything, life is an illusion and so am I, but it is a wonderful illusion to play with.  The greatest or richest thing to play with is love, compassion and caring.  Judgment offers all this for those who are awake to experience it.

I do see that my perspective is in a very small minority of humanity.  Most people are terrified of judgment.  Many major religions have created the fear of God in people by talking about Judgment Day, as if every day was not judgment day.  By making people afraid of judgment it means that one can intimidate them with the threat of judgment or control and manipulate their behavior through judgment.   I see this as a sickness in humanity that can be cured by confronting the lies that are the foundation of the fear of judgment. 

I really enjoy playing with other people who think they know something and can judge me.  For one, I have found that on occasion they actually have something to offer me in their judgments.  That is great, for they are only showing me where I have gone back asleep and can wake back up again, which I do from time to time.  If their judgments upset me, then it is only upsetting my slumber, waking me up, and I say “Thank you, you have done me a service.”  So, please judge me, criticize me, “attack” me with your words…they cannot hurt me, they can only help me.

Most often I see that people judge me based on what THEY want from me, not looking out for my interest but their interest.  Again, this is good judgment too, for it shows me that they are hurting or needy.  This kind of judgment is call for help from those doing the judging. 

Sometimes people who judge me are judging based on beliefs or delusions that they are carrying around that are also causing them suffering.  Again, this is a call for help, they are trapped in the dark cave of their mind and its beliefs and they are looking for help. 

I do unto others as I would want them to do unto me (because I experience I AM them).   So I judge others.  In judgment I look for what they are projecting into the world to see if there is any aspect of their ways of thinking that are not healthy or beneficial to them. 

As a Master Mystic (a title I made up for myself just to piss off the unconscious people :) )  I am overjoyed when somebody confronts, challenges, criticizes, judges or ‘attacks’ me with their words.   These are only opportunities for me to practice being in a space of love and caring and inner peace IN SPITE of what the world is offering me.  I love the opportunity to practice.

I see that when there is any type of personal interaction between people in this manner then there is some opportunity for raising the level of consciousness of humanity.  Judgment is a good thing to me and I would like to see it continued.

So now that I have put this out I am waiting for feedback.  Let the play begin. 

 

Jesus the Abuser

Jesus was a massive abuser and he was rightfully put to death for these sins.

In the culture of Jesus’ time Judaic law had 613 documented “sins” from their scriptures.  One of those sins was called “Ona'as Devarim,” which is Hebrew meaning “words that hurt.”  It simply states that if you say something and anyone takes offense at it, it is YOUR sin.  It further states, “If your words hurt lots of people then this is a capital crime and you should be put to death.”  

This wonderful ‘law’ came from Leviticus that has given us other wonderful gems of wisdom, such as we should kill people who work on Saturdays; we should kill people who are homosexuals; we should kill those who pray to a different God; we should kill people who blaspheme God,  among many others.

Jesus’ words ‘hurt’ lots of people, for many people took great offense at his words.  Jesus hurt people when he blasphemed God by calling himself one with God, for people took great offense at that.  Jesus hurt the scribes and Pharisees when he called them names, like hypocrite and blind guides.  Jesus abused people by advocating doctrines that were not approved by the ruling classes causing people to turn away from “sound doctrine” and be punished by the hierarchy of authority. 

Jesus was rightfully put to death for his offensive behavior.

And, please, let us ignore the fact that theme of Jesus’ teachings, which pathetically made in the Sermon on the Mound, was the value of blessedness.  One of the beatitudes that Jesus talked about said “Blessed be those who do not take offense at me,” which puts the onus of responsibility back on the person who CHOOSES to take offense at Jesus or anyone else.  Let us forget this for it was not the doctrine of the day and Jesus, trying to show a more peaceful and blessed way, was only offending people by preaching something outside the accepted doctrine or the boxes in their mind, which only future upset them. 

The true and “sound doctrine” was that people were to be ‘slaves and good servants to their masters’, to quote a famous law book that is worshipped even today. 

YES, Jesus was a massive abuser and he was rightfully put to death for his hideous crimes.  And let all remember that if they are to emulate Jesus’ way, truth and life in any way that they too will be punished harshly.  Let us remind one another of that by caring around figures of Jesus being crucified on chains around our neck and by putting them in our sacred building.  Let us remind one another that your words DO hurt people and that you too will be harshly punished if you say anything that is outside of accepted and proper speech. 

We would not want to upset the paradigm of those who take advantage of our innocence and ignorance and subtly stimulate our self abusive behavior so that they can intimidate, control and manipulate us to their own bidding.  Let us curse those who attempt to show us a way out of this subtle abuse, for they only want to disrupt the status quo, to change that which we can all see is working so perfectly well. 

Yes, Jesus was an abuser and a petty tyrant who was rightfully tortured and put to death for his brutal sins.

If you are gullible enough to believe this then you deserve the hell you are creating for yourself.

 

Bill Clinton on Plant Based Diet

Wolf Blitzer: How did you lose so much weight? What kind of diet are you on?

Bill Clinton: I went on essentially a plant-based diet. I live on beans, legumes, vegetables, fruit. I drink a protein supplement every morning — no dairy — I drink almond milk mixed in with fruit and a protein powder so I get the protein for the day when I start the day out. And it changed my whole metabolism and I lost 24 pounds and I got back to basically what I weighed in high school.

     But I did it for a different reason. I wanted to lose a little weight, but I never dreamed this would happen. I did it because after I had this stent put in, I realized that even though it happens quite often that after you have bypass [surgery] you lose the veins because they’re thinner and weaker than arteries, the truth is that it clogged up, which means that the cholesterol was still [causing] buildup in my vein that was part of my bypass. And thank God, I could take the stent. I didn’t want it to happen again.

     So I did all this research and I saw that 82 percent of the people since 1986 who have gone on a plant-based [diet], no dairy or meat of any kind, no chicken, turkey. I eat very little fish; once in a while I’ll have a little fish, not often. If you can do it, 82 percent of the people who have done that have begun to heal themselves. Their arterial blockage cleans up; the calcium deposit around their heart breaks up. This movement has been led by a doctor named Caldwell Esselstyn at the Cleveland Clinic, Dean Ornish who you know out in California, the doctors Campbell (father and son) who wrote The China Study, and a handful of others. But we now have 25 years of evidence and so I thought that, well, since I needed to lose a little weight for Chelsea’s wedding, I’ll become part of this experiment. I’ll see if I can be one of those that can have a self-clearing mechanism—we’ll see.

BILL CLINTON, Wolf Blitzer television interview, CNN, 22 September 2010. Clinton, 64, had quadruple bypass surgery in September 2004. In March 2005, he underwent surgery for a partially collapsed lung. In February 2010, he was rushed to a hospital after complaining of chest pains and had two stents implanted in his heart. Excepting CNN, mainstream media has virtually ignored Clinton’s switch to a mostly vegan diet. Given the soaring obesity rates, chronic-disease rates and healthcare costs in the U.S., his example — had it been widely reported — might have benefited many people.

 

Fear & Conservatism

Fear and authoritarianism are the two foundations of conservatism, but mostly just fear because authoritarianism is felt as necessary for those in fear.

It takes a lot of love and courage to look at and speak to the fears that are within us all. I have always done that by first confronting within myself the beliefs that are the foundation of these fears until I had overcome them and then confronting the beliefs in others that they have not examined themselves. I wonder if there is a better way to address this challenge.

I AM GOD

I love life and all that it has to offer.  Nothing is impossible to me.  I love judgment and criticism.  I love to judge and be judged.  Judgment cannot hurt me it can only awaken me should I fall asleep.  I love to push buttons and I love to have people try to push my buttons.  If I react with less than love then I am asleep and it is only an opportunity to wake up, or, I can choose to stay asleep. 

The worldly will tell me I am not God.  I only smile, for their darkness has no power over me.  I have overcome the world and its ability to darken my light.  And I love the worldly as they try to bring their darkness upon.    I can choose to stay in the darkness and sleep or I can wake up to the light. If I submit to darkness it only means it is time for me to sleep.

Does God sleep?  God does EVERYTHING for everything is God.  God is in everything and everything is in God.  There is only one, separation is only an illusion.

Does God change?  God changes and does not change.  God is inclusive of change and is outside of change. 

Why be God?  God is love and God loves.  Who does not want to love all that life has to offer?  Who does not want to enjoy all that life has to offer?  Yes, there are those who are too afraid to love all, so their fear will dictate to them that they do not want to be God, to be love and to love.  They are just those who are still in the darkness and asleep.  As the light starts to shine on them they will start to awaken and want to be awakened.  As those of us who have awaken to who we really are start to shine our light then those in the darkness, those who are asleep will start to yearn for the more light and to be the light. 

We can all be the light of the world.  We can all be God.  To the awakened there are no limits, all is possible. 

 

Oneness and Separation

In the beginning was the idea that there was separation within the Unified Field of Consciousness. Before the idea of separation came into being there was no beginning and no end, there just was Consciousness. But without the illusion of separation there could be no drama to enjoy and love, and there could be no joy and love, so imagination happened and "we" came into being and that "we" existed as separate beings just so we can have the drama of life.

Some of us have forgotten that there is no "we", there is only "I", as in I am that I am. Without awareness of the reality of non-duality we imagine that our dramas are real and that creates needless suffering and misery. So the part of 'we' that is awake has always tried to tell the part of 'we' that is not awake to be aware of the "I AM" that is One and All. To do that sometimes we would say, "Know God" and other times we would just say 'wake up', but always it was just part of the 'we' telling the other part of 'we' that all is ok, all is perfect just as it is.

And part of the beautiful and perfect drama is our attempt to wake each other up. It is part of the love that we came for, loving and caring enough to make the effort to try and wake each other up.

Thank God for the delusion separation, for without it there cannot be love.

Meditation in Conversation

It deeply saddens me to see people who have a habit of harming themselves or limiting the quality of their life experience. It is my experience that this is only a product of conditioning and habitual thoughts and not something we need to be trapped in for the rest of our lives.

Someplace along the way I recognized that I could change my behavior or habitual reactions to what life was offering me. For instance, I noticed that there were certain words or combination of words that if somebody said I had a habitual reaction of getting upset, offended or angry. At first it was hard for me to acknowledge that it was only MY habitual reaction that caused the negative experience of getting upset or offended or angry and that it was not the fault of the person who spoke the words. But when I finally accepted that fact and took responsibility for my reactions, I started to find peace. With the awareness and skill that gave me peace, I was then able to choose positive reactions to the same stimuli or words so that I could have a positive experience.

For instance, let us say that a child has drilled into them that when his parents, family or teachers said the word “bad,” as in “you were a bad boy” they were supposed to feel, well, bad. At first that bad feeling might have come from being spanked causing physical pain or the and that pain became associated in the mind/brain with the word “bad”. So from then on when somebody told them they were being a “bad” person, they had a habit of reacting by contracting, fearfully anticipating pain. The reaction of contraction itself was painful, or at least an uncomfortable experience. So an emotional reaction to the word “bad” would be experienced as negative; people can observe that and use the habitual reaction to control behavior. Hence, perfect programming…a child can be conditioned to be controlled by mere words.

When I came to realization of this, I also realized that I could RE-program myself to have different reactions to those same words or stimuli. Since I had realized that what I really wanted was to experience positive things like happiness, joy, love, peace and freedom, I could reprogram myself to respond to what people said to me in a way that enabled me to have those positive experiences.

I also have realized that human relationships make up the vast majority of experiences and relationships are primarily about communications with other people. Just as my parents had communicated to me the “meaning” or the intended response of the word “bad,” so, too, there were an almost infinite number of words or behaviors that I was supposed to respond to in the usually prescribed manner. But a lot of these usually prescribed reactions produced for me negative experience that I did not want to have. So I developed a practice of reprogramming myself to have the type of reactions I wanted to have and not the type of reactions that others expected from me.

I call this practice Meditation in Conversation. Meditation is the practice of first learning to relax and not react around various stimuli, including thoughts. Second, meditation is the practice of positive response to those same stimuli, including thoughts. So Meditation in Conversation is the practice of learning to relax and not react around the stimuli of words or in conversation and second, it is the practice of responding with positive emotional experiences.

Meditation is a state of focused relaxation. Meditation in Conversation is the intentional effort to relax around the stimulation of words. When I am relaxed I find that I no longer feet a ‘need’ to react to what was being said. I become more tolerant and can allow people to express themselves even if it was only venting their frustrations.

Meditation in Conversation is developing the skill of respecting and loving our selves first; learning how NOT to abuse our selves when someone says something to us. Meditation in Conversation is about developing the skills of honesty and intimacy. Honesty only happens if we are not afraid of OUR response to what people say to us. When we no longer fear ourselves and our reactions to what people say to us, then we will have the courage to be honest both with ourselves and with those around us.

The skills that the practice of Meditation in Conversation gives me enable me to choose the quality of my life experience instead of being a victim of whatever was said or whatever life is offering me. I have become empowered to have the quality of life that I have always wanted. I have all the happiness, joy, love, peace and freedom that I want, regardless of and sometimes in spite of what life is offering me.

I developed this aphorism for myself to remind me of the true power that I always have: words cannot hurt me, only my reactions to words can do me harm. With this reminder I took my power back from all those who would either intentionally or unintentionally stimulate my habit of abusing myself emotionally around words.

I also developed a simple method to remind myself of how to get back to a place of inner peace and clarity how to go further, how to create a positive experience whenever my programmed habits caused a negative reaction to what life was offering. This method I call the Four S’s, which are Simplicity, Softness, Smile and Stillness.

Simplify: Start by reminding yourself of the simple truth of the aphorism that nothing anyone says can harm you, only your reactions can do you harm. Remember to be in the simple truth of the Present Moment and that thoughts of past and future are not real, they are only memories and imagination. Simplify your intention by recognizing that before you can be of service to other you must first be of service to yourself; before you can love another you must be able to love yourself—Self Love First. I have learned that if I am uptight, I am not being loving to myself so I cannot love another or be of service to them. NOW is the time to relax and let go, not tomorrow or when you have the time to meditate. NOW is all you will ever have so start NOW to let go.

Soften: Become aware of the tension in your body, mind and heart. To soften the body take deep, whole breaths and allow yourself to relax with each out breath, feeling the tension flow out of your body with the breath. Become aware of the tension in your face, head, neck, shoulders, back, arms, stomach, legs and so forth. With each out breath feel the body relaxing and letting go. To soften the mind, recognize that you really cannot KNOW anything and that whenever you know something you are creating hardness in your mind which manifests in the body. To soften the heart recognize that nothing that ever has happened or could happen on this puny speck of dust in the universe that we call Earth could ever be important; that all is meaningless and all importance is vanity and let it go. In this process you feel the softening of your entire body, mind and heart.

Smile: When you smile you are shining your light. Light enables you to see clearly what is really going on. Research has shown that smiling has multiple benefits: it relieves stress, boosts your immune system, changes your mood and helps you stay positive. Smiling is the practice of appreciation which leads to joy and eventually to love. We are naturally drawn to the experience of lightheartedness or just lightening up. Use the word Smile to remind yourself of this so that you can go back to this enlightened state of being.

Whatever is happening in this moment is your moment; this is your life so you might as well enjoy it. The more you can smile on your life’s moments, the more your life is filled with the light of appreciations, joy and love.

Our deepest motive in life is to appreciate, enjoy and love life. Awareness is to remember that nothing is more important than the quality and richness of joy and love. If we remember this, then we will remember to enjoy what life is offering us. Nothing is more important than the sense of appreciation, joy and love.
I have coined a term for this sense of appreciation. I call it “Yesness”. We want to experience the light so we lighten up, we become light hearted. To lighten up is to feel a sense of YESness about life and what we are experiencing. To smile is to recognize where we are habitually saying no, to release that negativity and say YES. When we are up tight, thinking and saying NO becomes a habit. By relaxing, thinking and feeling Yes, we begin to find the quality of life that we are looking for.

Stillness: There is a time for motion or effort and there is a time for stillness or effortlessness. No effort, no intentions, no will, no plans, no goals, just relaxing and being. With stillness comes clarity that allows us to perceive the truth that will set us free from all negativity. With stillness we can see through the illusions that create fear and negativity. It is in the peace and stillness that comes after letting go that gives us the clarity to perceive the perfect truth that will set us perfectly free. With stillness we can see the light of joy that will guide us on our next step in our life. When joy is your guiding light, then joy will always be your companion.

Stillness and rest is necessary for the human instrument to live. Without a balance of motion and stillness the quality of life will be lost.

Stillness produces clarity that in turn enables us to see the truth that sets us free to enjoy and love all that life has to offer. Stillness is the peace that enables us to relax into appreciation, joy and love.

Confidence comes in stillness. As you cultivate the skill of relaxing and not reacting to the stimuli that life is offering you gain confidence in your ability to deal with what life is offering. Stillness will enable you to not beat yourself up emotionally with a strong reaction around life’s challenges.

The skills that Meditation in Conservation gives you will enable you to be fully with ALL that life is offering and to be a full participant in society. Imagine being in a relationship where the other comes home after a hard day at work where they have been challenged by their boss and the traffic coming home was worse than usual. The first thing they do when they get into the house is to ‘vent’ from their day and start bitching or just complaining about whatever it is that first sets them off. Usually you would have gotten defensive or had some other negative reaction to their unhealthy or negative venting. But now, with the skills you have developed from Meditation in Conversation you catch yourself in your own reactions and you relax, let go, smile and just be still. You allow the venting because you can see that it can do you no harm and that the other needs to release all the pent up tension they have developed throughout the day. You might even encourage them to vent. And, after they have fully vented, you smile and give them an encouraging hug, telling them you love them.

The cycle has been broken. No longer are you reactive to what people say to you. Now you have the capacity to let go of your negative reactions and just allow what needs to be. Then you can come forth in life and offer your light of appreciation, joy and love. Life has become much more fulfilled and you are at peace with a beautiful and perfect world.

I would suggest that you open yourself up to ANY opportunity to practice this Meditation in Conversation. That would mean with family, friends, loved one, but also with those with whom you disagree or have hard feelings toward. I would go to extremist organizations and listen to their ranting and raving while practicing meditating and watching my responses. My next step was to go to meetings where I could engage with others and watch my reactions to their reactions of me (judgments, criticism and even rejection).

I recognized that we first have to get to equanimity for the clarity that it offers, and then our natural compassion for others will come out. The practice of Meditation in Conversation brings me to a place of inner peace and equanimity that I was looking for. I am sure that it will do the same for you.

Why Should I be a Dharmi?

I have found that the Hindu tradition provides a very good foundation in the skills of stillness which this article addresses. Buddhism takes Hinduism another step and adds compassion as an element toward recognizing our oneness in this journey. Jesus went even further toward this oneness with the ideas of love but he did not emphasis the value of stillness or what he called "watching" enough to his followers and hence they do not promote this most important FIRST step in the process. I find that no western traditions promote this basic skill enough, although they do talk about it.

The Perfect Dharma would be melding of the eastern and western traditions would be a melding of the skills of watching (peace of the eastern traditions) with the power and passion of the western tradition.

Modern Scriptures w/o Gender Bias

We have re-written the holy scriptures to reflect the modern understanding beyond gender. If you go into any book store today rarely will you see a modern day spiritual book with that gender bias. YOU  just don't see them as holy scriptures yet. Wait a few hundred years and you might figure it out.
 
Nothing changes over night except our minds. Quit thinking of those ancient books as holy texts and "poof" they are gone. Change your ways of thinking about the recent "holy texts" and "poof" they are rewritten to reflect the non biased perspective.

You have all the power. Change starts with you and moves outwards.
 

I Killed Myself

Dead, gone and forgotten. My "self" is dead. I no longer have to defend it. I no longer have to worry if it is going to heaven or hell or what karma or sin it has or if it will reincarnate into a bat. It is dead, I killed it.

Boy, what a difference a dead self makes. Of course, it does not mean that there is not worry for this piece of carcass known as Jim, but the carcass is just a tool, a vehicle, a toy to be played with until it is worn out then thrown away. "I" don't have to worry about it anymore because "I" am dead.
You might ask, "How did you kill yourself if you are still here?" Well, “I” am not here, the body is. “I” am dead. At least the part of Jim that thinks of himself as a body or a separate being with beginning and end.

I killed myself by looking for the self. Eventually I saw that the self is just a thought, an electro-magnetic impulse traveling around the brain/body mechanism. When I fully let go of focusing on anything, particularly the sensations in the body/brain, then the instrument relaxed, let go and stop creating any more impulses, including the impulse known as ‘self’.

Or course, acknowledging that this happened was another impulse which brought back the original impulse of self. BUT, the power of the idea or thought known as self had been broken and has diminished ever since.

It is wonderful being free from the grip that my ‘self’ had on me. No longer is there worry about ‘my’ career. Karma and sin have no meaning. Since “I” am no longer important then ‘my’ world is no longer important. Hell, I can now see that nothing in the manifested universe is important so why worry about anything. It is all here just for the fun of it. All is meaningless (unless I want to play with meaning and create meaning for it). All is vanity.

Even writing this is vanity, but it is also a lot of fun.
Now I am free to enjoy and love ALL that life has to offer.
Yet, habits die hard and the habit of thinking about my ‘self’ is strong. Sometimes there is forgetting that the self is not real and I go back to worrying about it. Usually I wake back up by myself but sometimes it take a true friend, one who really cares about me, to stun me back awake by confronting my silly idea that I am real or important or that I matter or that anything I could ever do mattered or that anything anyone could do or has ever done could really matter.

Sometimes a go a long time before I wake back up. In those times I wish I had more friends who really cared about me enough to jolt me back awake. So I have dedicated my life (Opps, there I go again, like it is ‘my’ life in the first place, silly me) to waking up others so that they can wake me up when I fall asleep. AND, so they can also fully enjoy and love ALL that life has to offer.

Wait, OTHERS???? There I go again, thinking there are ‘others’ in the universe. How can that be if “I” have no beginning or end, I therefore must be infinite and all inclusive. In infinity there can be no ‘other’ so there are no others. Ah, then I am not waking up ‘others’ so they can fully enjoy and love ALL that life has to offer; I am waking the REST of me up to fully enjoy and love ALL that life has to offer.

Phew, that was a lot of work. Ah, but it is worth it. What greater gift can I give to myself (and all there other ‘selves’ of me out there) that to wake up to enjoy this perfect world and universe?

Does anybody want to join me?

Unnecessary Suffering

I am really sad to see people abusing themselves emotionally just over something someone said to them. It is a sad world that programs us to abuse ourselves just so others can control and manipulate us. I am really glad I took the time and effort to overcome the world's ability to stimulate my self abusive behavior. ... I would really like to find a way to share this ability/skill with others.

We can all overcome the world's ability to stimulate our self-abusive behavior IF we are willing to take the time and effort to develop the skills necessary.

It is pretty obvious that the skill of controlling our bowels and bladder improves the quality of our life experience, for we no longer need to wear diapers. But most people have no idea that they can learn to control their emotional self-abusive behavior with just a little bit of awareness and effort. Anger, fear, guilt, shame, doubt, pessimism and all forms of negative or unattractive emotional and mental states and with consciousness we can choose to experience these or not. We can also choose happiness, joy, love, peace, freedom and we can choose to see beauty in all that life offers.

But all this takes skill and practice just as it took awareness and effort to develop the skills of walking, controlling our bowels and bladder, riding a bike, driving a car or most anything else.

There is no greater gift we can give ourselves or others than the gift of UNCONDITIONAL happiness, joy, love, peace and freedom.