tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66874915930685601042024-03-18T20:10:26.959-07:00Higher TruthsTimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.comBlogger66125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-38509998307775225582020-09-09T02:33:00.005-07:002020-09-09T02:41:36.575-07:00The Power of Thought<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUUOFb4sWNWK4rTpSoINOnU25ejnmceea_RYvsUzrFS1RI6qTMsORUTZVDTVhnvYLX5gaQyQhyphenhyphenMsyppAlYDq0XOapTMp8Be_I-53HZsQXZRr3nexOm1WWJuDZX-PCMydiM13UMoq19xEVq/s1087/4676129094_475e3086b3_o.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="724" data-original-width="1087" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUUOFb4sWNWK4rTpSoINOnU25ejnmceea_RYvsUzrFS1RI6qTMsORUTZVDTVhnvYLX5gaQyQhyphenhyphenMsyppAlYDq0XOapTMp8Be_I-53HZsQXZRr3nexOm1WWJuDZX-PCMydiM13UMoq19xEVq/w625-h416/4676129094_475e3086b3_o.jpg" width="625" /></a></div><br /><p><br />If you had to stop and think what the most powerful tool is that you have at your disposal, what would you say? I suggest this tool is our mind. When I speak of the "mind", I do not mean this thing between your ears. How could you think that (pun intended)? I mean this thing that some call the "heart-mind" or we can even say power-center. Since I'm more into Tantra these days, let's call this our gut, located in our solar plexus. Some call this the "seat of the soul." This is what I mean by mind. Confusing, I know! I'm trying to lasso in your physical brain with your intuition and also your heart. All of that. I guess you could also call this your "will" but I think this is a loaded term.</p><p>If you boiled down every religion into it's essence and the teachings of every spiritual teacher, saint and guru, I think you would find their instructions to us fairly simple: think for yourself. Now, I think, over the ages, that these teachings have become polluted and distorted with the collective unconscious and with teachings that were not part of the original instructions, if you will.</p><p>By that same token, you can easily identify a cult or "bad" religion as one in which they actively encourage their practitioners to surrender their thinking to some "higher authority" which is usually the church or it's pastors. They may say that this is God but who is claiming to be the moral authority or the ones who interprets God's will? Well... usually the church even if they don't explicitly say this. Now I'm not bashing the church or anything like that. I am simply pointing out that you are the best interpreter of God's will for your life. And I generally don't like the word "God", I like more the Universe, universal consciousness and the like. But, to me, they all more or less mean the same thing.</p><p>The most powerful thing we can do in this life is learn to think for ourselves. Realize that there is a Universal intelligence that flows through each of us, whether we realize it or not. This intelligence has different expression in different people in different ways. And this diversity of expression is truly beautiful.</p><p>Why do we struggle with this? I submit that it means that we must learn to listen to our gut, which is a treasure trove of wisdom for us. If you're like me, we've all had traumas and setbacks in life that make us not only distrust ourselves but create layers of pain around our authentic selves. To get to this source of wisdom means journeying through this pain to get to our voice of innocence. This is why self reflection and a soft heart are so important. We desperately need to embark on this journey and these are two important tools at our disposal. In short, we need to heal.</p><p>Once we are thinking for ourselves, we realize that we are sitting on an endless supply, a fountain of knowledge and inspiration. We go within, not without. This isn't just a cliche'. It's instructions on how to live a meaningful, joyful, love-filled life.</p><p>If we use this power of our thought and direct it towards creating a life that brings us joy, just think of the potential! It's endless potential. So the question I leave you with is simple: how will choose to use this thought superpower you possess? The choice is yours.<br /><br />-----<br />Photo Credit: Alice Popkorn</p><p><br /></p>Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-19512869753876058212020-07-07T08:18:00.001-07:002020-07-07T08:29:12.332-07:00Building a Utopia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This is a thought experiment about a concept of our day which has come up: "defunding the police department." This post is not intended to present an argument for or against this position. It's meant to merely explore this issue more fully. I plan to write additional posts like this that explore more current concepts in a simple way.<br />
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There are too many factors, variables, emotions, etc. that go into this concept to even mention. I like to boil things down to their bare essentials. Instead of getting rid of the police department (which I think is the main intention of this concept), let's get rid of civilization as we know it for our thought experiment.<br />
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Let's build our utopia from the ground up. At first it's just us. Then we invite some trusted friends. Everyone knows each other and gets along just fine. No police needed. Everyone is working doing odd jobs for our utopia. Some, however, need to travel outside our village to bring back water and other odd jobs. While someone is far from their house, thieves outside the utopia come in and steal everything from a house that was left empty. So, the next time, the community appoints volunteers to keep watch over the empty houses while the occupants are gone working.<br />
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Pretty soon, the community realizes these volunteers are very useful in guarding their houses. But the volunteers also need to eat so they start giving them a salary and they call them the "community watch." Some within the community watch turn bad and start stealing from the community houses once in a while. In fact, some members even starts to harass those whom they dislike and use physical force to "stop" them from committing imaginary crimes.<br />
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What's the solution in our thought experiment? Is it to get rid of the community watch? Is it to maybe to hire fewer of them? This experiment illustrates a few points. There is no silver bullet solution to anything. Every solution has it's drawbacks. It's trying to minimize the negative repercussions as much as possible. This also helps boil things down to a more basic level. Why was the community watch created in the first place?<br />
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My opinion is that we often look at the end result of a situation and try to fix things at that level. However, we need to consider the entire picture. We need to look at the possible negative repercussions to our solution to any problem. The best solution is not one that does not have negative consequences but one in which those consequences are minimized.<br />
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We can never remove human nature. We can't out-think it or create a system that completely takes that out of the equation. Just as some humans are hard-working, some are lazy. Some are good and have only good intentions and some are dishonest or plain evil. Fortunately, the truly evil ones are the far, far minority. Unfortunately, even a minority of bad actors can do a lot of damage. Good, thoughtful solutions to contemporary issues consider all points of view and all consequences, intended or unintended. These are problems that have existed as long as there are humans.<br />
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There is no silver bullet but only trade-offs. Let us all be civil with one another, respect other viewpoints and come together in unity. There are better solutions out there but none of us has the "answer." It's through working together that we can come up with a better solution.<br />
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Photo credit: McMac70 (Flickr)<br />
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<br />Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-1674724503696202752020-05-16T17:56:00.000-07:002020-05-16T17:56:02.696-07:00My Child, You May Rest Now<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQefyE-Bdjca_KRIrSsQNW9IFSUy16Iy2LMp5wBy59QOYPpgCA_kc5muJGYrwcnVV2KZKRZi7y5afA41qMe1tfEm0_AxgnTLxD4AW_MM_6lVy1c8qPEvryfTpTqss7aKpTI9-E7CdBxtSf/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQefyE-Bdjca_KRIrSsQNW9IFSUy16Iy2LMp5wBy59QOYPpgCA_kc5muJGYrwcnVV2KZKRZi7y5afA41qMe1tfEm0_AxgnTLxD4AW_MM_6lVy1c8qPEvryfTpTqss7aKpTI9-E7CdBxtSf/s320/5093855573_47d2af25b9_o.jpg" /></a></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 6px;"><br />My child, will you choose to lay down your burdens and rest?<br />In life, you do not have to carry any burdens.<br />You only carry what you choose to carry.<br />My child, why do you still carry them?<br />You may lay them down now.<br />Release your struggle.<br />Give them to me.<br />Let them go.<br />Surrender.<br />Relax.<br />Rest.<br /><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 6px 0px 0px;">-----<br />Photo by Laurene.B. (Flickr)</p>Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-85151388841320705792020-04-13T07:42:00.000-07:002020-04-16T01:14:38.037-07:00Living from the Inside Out<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW182231925" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
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I’ve recently been learning a lot about the importance of living my life from the inside out. It's very easy for me to look at the surface of a situation rather than plumb its’ depths; this may stem from cultural origins or may simply be a symptom of living in a physical world. However, the depths is where the juice is. It's easy to get caught up in the externals: how someone will react, the story around what's happening or anything else that isn’t myself. What I've found is I need to go deeper, beneath the surface.<br />
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Why do I have a tendency to look on the outside? Because it takes the focus off of myself and puts it on someone or something else. I will do whatever it takes to not look within. Looking within is uncomfortable and is a more challenging subject for my mind to work with. So I look outside myself instead. This has only so much value, because I cannot control these outside people or forces or events. I can only react to them. This makes it all the much easier to "play the victim" rather than take responsibility for my actions.<br />
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What's beneath the surface? Everything. We live in a world that is illusory. To the scientific minded, this assertion is impossible to prove. It has to be experienced. But, once you experience it, you get it and your mind is satisfied.<br />
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Our thoughts and intentions co-create our reality. Some see this as a naïve statement or as one that blames people if their reality is negative or undesirable. Of course, not everything negative in our lives is our fault. There’s an interplay here between external and internal. This is an empowering statement that serves to give us control over our lives. However, once again, this needs to be experienced to be understood.<br />
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When we are dealing with the externals of a situation rather than looking within, then we are operating at the symptom level rather than the level at which a cure can be found. We can only go so far towards improving an undesirable situation when simply treating symptoms. We have a far greater impact when we are working from within and getting to the root of the problem.<br />
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In an undesirable situation, we want to look within and see what our part is. We want to become centered and peaceful and resolve any afflictive emotions surrounding the situation first. We live life from the inside out. We want to deal with our inner state and make sure we are getting right with ourselves before looking outside of ourselves.<br />
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The truth is that our inner transformative work ripples outwards and actually changes the physical world. Many of these changes are subtle and difficult to verify or quantify. However, the situation is changed nonetheless. Some of these changes are in reaction to us. People see our attitude or can sense our energy or simply are affected in subconscious ways. Other changes are miraculous.<br />
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It is easy to give into the temptation of engaging our scientific brain to fix a situation by looking at the effect level rather than looking within. Our mind tells us “It's only practical!” It says “It’s the only method that makes sense." Remember, the mind prefers to work with the known rather than the unknown. Looking within does not make sense to the mind as this means that we give up our perceived control of the situation. The truth is we never had control in the first place. Looking within is surrendering to the unknown and changing the only thing we had control of in the first place: ourselves.<br />
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This is the secret that our minds cannot grasp and that we need to be reminded of. We need to live lives from the inside out. We need to deal with the cause rather than the effect. Remember, the mind will try and trick us, but there is no real good reason why we should work any other way. We need to stay strong, be courageous and face ourselves. Working from the inside out is the only way that we will experience real, lasting change and miraculous results where we are overjoyed and transformed in the process.<br />
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Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-68856271844532054922020-04-02T13:43:00.000-07:002020-07-07T08:27:16.361-07:004/2/2020: The Month Ahead for Orange County, CaliforniaAs I write this (well I almost don't want to write this), I'm simply just trying to take in all that's happening. I, with the rest of the world, am reeling from this rapid chain of events that has taken the world by storm. Of course, I am referring to Covid-19.<br />
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This post is primarily geared towards Orange County, California, where I live. I'm no scientist. I'm no statistician. I'm no health expert or doctor or medical professional. I am a layperson. However, I've made some observations about the unfoldment of this virus in Orange County. I feel like I owe it to this community to post my observations and then for you to do with them what you will.<br />
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My disclaimer here is that I simply consume the news like you. Most of the basis for my charts are including what I see in the news. And some numbers or stats stand out to me more than others so I will subjectively use those. As with any prediction or model, it is a <b>prediction</b>. This inherently means it is a guess. Even when scientists predict something, they're just guessing. So this chart is my "best guess" of what's ahead in the month of April. I do plan on updating this page as major developments occur. As I do, I will notate what I changed near the bottom of the page.<br />
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A lot of this is showing up in the news too. But, in any case, these are just estimates. When I first started observing the virus, I attempted to make my own chart that tracked the first known cases in the county where I live, Orange County, CA. It started from a handful of cases back in the beginning of March to today where there are over 600 known cases. As testing ramps up, the number of reported cases may increase (and probably already has).<br />
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Looking at the growth rate of the virus, or the R0 (R "naught")--this refers to how easily the virus spreads from person to person. Since it seems, on average, that people can spread this virus right away and even before they are symptomatic for a duration of 5 days, I put my "doubling rate" at 5 days. I've heard this statistic many times too. Many have said that this virus doubles every 5 days. That, of course, is a simplification. When I've tracked this virus in Orange County, it has more than doubled every 5 days. In fact the multiplication factor I've used every 5 days is 2.6. This then means that, for every infected person, they pass this on to 2.6 more people.<br />
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The blue line in the above chart shows what it looks like when a virus keeps on that trend line.<br />
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The red shaded portion is my projection for "basic social distancing" in Orange County. You'll see that I show that the virus will level off April 28th or so. But that puts the number of infected at 90,000. This, in fact, is my worst case prediction. How did I arrive at this? I don't remember the exact article but I read somewhere that percent infected in Wuhan was 3% I believe at the surge in the pandemic. It seemed like a safe, low number to put, especially since some lax social distancing would help flatten the curve by design. The virus can and will not show a complete upwards trajectory, of course. It has to come down as we've seen throughout the world in every country.<br />
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The green portion is my best case prediction based on "extreme social distancing." This shows a peek number of infected to be 4,000. If things go this way, we will hit a peek around April 11th. I chose this peek number based off of Italy's numbers. I somewhat subjectively picked Rome and followed their infection rates as they mirrored Orange County's. There's tons of reasons why that isn't a great idea to do, but it is one approach and it was convenient.<br />
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The actual results will fall somewhere between these two estimations. The date to pay attention to (and why I wrote this blog post) is 4/21/2020. That is the date that Orange County could run out of hospital beds. The County has already secured alternate hospitals so this won't be a huge issue other than a logistical one. My point in all of this is to show that the last week of April through mid-May could be a very rough ordeal for this County to get through. It's best to prepare ourselves even for the worst case and hope it does not happen.<br />
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I reached the "out of hospital bed" date by assuming 43% of those infected will need a hospital bed (and I am not even looking at ICU beds). I came up with that number through looking at other statistical models and looking at some real data. Sorry no references as this is really just a hobby of mine and I don't have the time to gather those!<br />
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I could be completely wrong and April and May could be a breeze. If they are, then I think we've headed off the worst of this pandemic in California. There is so much subjectivity in all of this. Some variables or things that affect all of this modeling is:<br />
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<li>How quickly we are able to roll out tests, how much testing we do and who and why we test</li>
<li>How much the average citizen follows the social distancing and stay-at-home orders</li>
<li>How much of the hidden population we don't know that is already infected that then keeps spreading the virus</li>
<li>How quickly our current protocols pay off for us (increasing social distancing and stay-at-home orders beginning mid-March)</li>
<li>There are many more...</li>
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Again, my point in all of this is to spread what I personally have been learning and to help prepare all of us for a potentially rough end of April that gets better mid-May. I hope and pray that the current trend does not continue and that there is a seamless transition (if it does occur) between running out of hospital beds and transitioning to alternate or converted hospitals. My recommendation is to stay inside, shop only when necessary, make your own masks and hand sanitizer and limit your contact to only those whom you absolutely need to contact. Stay home and stay safe!<br />
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Update 4/12/20: We did hit the peak number of infections per day of this virus around 4/1/20. As such, we are well ahead of the best case estimate with current number of infections around 1,300 (my estimate was almost 5x this number). We are now in a tapering off phase and should see a dramatic reduction of daily infections over the next several weeks.</div>
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Update 7/7/20: Looking back now, this shows the extreme level of panic that we were all in back then. The current number of cases in OC (17,882) now match this chart's predictions with "no social distancing" (blue line). We were just all panicked 3 months ago. The red shaded area in the chart is about 10x higher than it should be when I wrote this post. Clearly this is an epidemic that we can control and we have proven that we can contain the infection rate through social distancing. The real question remains: how long can/should we have to fundamentally change our lives for this virus?</div>
Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-82617646785123217122013-07-07T08:11:00.001-07:002013-07-07T08:15:59.664-07:00A Way Through<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>How emotional pain and suffering can be used as a catalyst to make us more conscious and can be seen in a positive light to get us to where we need to be.</i><br />
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Pain and suffering do not last forever. They can't as it's impossible, once we realize what is at the root. What causes pain? What causes suffering? I am, of course, referring to emotional pain. Both of these conditions rely on an ego. They need some sort of defined image or idea about what life should look like. A simple definition of pain would be when life does not match my own idea of it. Suffering, then, is the ongoing, repetitive attempts to make life fit into my ideas about it.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>This also helps explain why we can also see pain as attempting to push or pull life into my idea of what it should look like. Let's just say that I am depressed, then I want to drink some alcohol. The problem isn't that I am depressed, but, rather, that I have an idea that I should be happy. I, then, am manipulating life to make me happy. I am looking to something outside myself to change my state. The same could be said about anything: watching TV, eating, shopping for new clothes or whatever it may be.<br />
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Emotional pain is actually a good thing. Of course, it doesn't feel good. But, what is actually happening is that it signifies a shrinking of our ego. It is a pairing down of these images about ourselves. We feel the pain, because the idea of self is shrinking. On the same token, an absence of emotional pain means that one has a small or almost non-existent ego, but, more commonly, that one has blockages that prevent that person from feeling this pain.<br />
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This is why, as counter-intuitive as this seems, pain should actually be embraced, rather than run from. The myth, the way it feels at the time, is that emotional pain will last forever. It is this myth that keeps us avoiding facing any pain. The only way to avoid pain is to run from it. You can quickly see that this is a vicious cycle. If we are running from emotional pain, we are not acting in a conscious manner. We are acting in a reactive manner. As such, our motive for engaging in whatever actions we are engaging in is to avoid pain.<br />
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It is not because we actually want to do them. Maybe we are seeking out that next relationship based on an unconscious desire to heal some pain in our lives. As this is the motivation, you can see that we are not the ones deciding what we are doing. The pain is. This could be a definition of unconsciousness: when we are not consciously deciding to act but rather we are driven to it by some other motivation, such as pain. This also gives us a peek into karma and how actions repeat themselves. If we have unconscious motivations, they will seek out the same situations over and over again. But, this is an entirely different topic.<br />
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Emotional pain cannot last forever because, what is actually happening, is that we are allowing the body, where we store emotional pain, to cleanse itself. The first step, of course, is conscious awareness into what is causing the pain. What image are we holding up that life does not match? Is it the loss of a relationship? The loss of a loved one? That image was culled into our collection of images, that is, the ego, and we do not want to let go of it. Intellectual knowledge is the first step. Admitting that this image has to be let go of. We have to let our ego shrink to this degree.<br />
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But, what of pain? It seems like it is more than simply intellectual knowledge. We feel it in our body as well. For that image to be reinforced within us, we have had a number of emotional experiences with that image. We loved or hated it. We are attached to it in some way. Emotions are stored in the body. Even after we have intellectually decided to move on, we still feel stuck in the pain. That is because we have to allow these pent up emotions to clear themselves. This takes time. But it is absolutely true that this time is finite and quicker than you may think.<br />
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In fact, all that we need to focus on is this moment. That's all we can ever focus on anyway. When the pain, uncomfortable emotions bubble up, rather than avoid them, send loving thoughts and energy into it. Cradle that part of yourself that grieves the loss of this image. But, be honest with yourself that it is nothing more than an image. Life as it is does not currently match this image. To move on, we have to allow the image to dissolve, to crumble in its own time.<br />
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Emotional pain and suffering are a blessing because they signify the shrinking of the ego. It is only the running away from or the avoidance of these things that gets us into trouble. Pain and suffering are but seasons that we pass through but avoidance of these seasons keep us perpetually stuck within these seasons. The end goal, then, is, as our ego shrinks, as we allow life itself to slowly chip away at our ideas and thoughts of the way things should be, we become happier. The ego itself stands in the way between us and happiness. In fact, we are happiness itself. Yet, these blockages prevent us fully experiencing this ever-present joy and happiness in our lives.<br />
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The happiness I am referring to is not a passing season but always beneath our everyday experience. That is why pain is a blessing. That is why we can embrace suffering. So, when you feel that pain, know that it is on the path to liberation. That going through it will actually lead to happiness, joy and love in the future. It leads us forward on our road to fully embodying happiness and love, to complete fulfillment in our lives.<br />
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<i><br /></i>Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-24876451623477651542013-03-13T12:57:00.001-07:002013-03-13T12:57:25.257-07:00What Am I Expecting?<div>
I am experimenting with a new podcasting platform that makes it easier for me to get podcasts out. Here are the last couple of podcasts I have created recently. Enjoy!</div>
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<a href="http://www.ipadio.com/broadcasts/HigherTruths/2013/3/8/Differences-In-Religions" target="_blank">Differences In Religion</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.ipadio.com/broadcasts/HigherTruths/2013/3/13/What-Am-I-Expecting" target="_blank">What Am I Expecting?</a><div>
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Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-79253220979610492392012-09-09T20:24:00.000-07:002012-09-09T20:24:15.452-07:00Past, Present and Future<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">The new motto or focus of my life is to stay grounded in all areas, spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, etc. When I've thought about the "power of now" or staying in the present moment, it's been more of an attempt to almost "stop planning" or "stop looking at the past." While all of that is well and good... I mean we should just "be present." I completely agree </span><br />
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with that.</div>
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<a name='more'></a><br />It's just that in this "being present", I just wanted to find the off button on my mind. I just wanted to stop thinking. And... that's good if you tend to, like me, think a lot and want to settle your thoughts down. What I forgot was that my mind is a tool to be used, when I need it, and that being present also involves using my mind.<br /><br />In fact, being in the "now" should give me a new use of my mind. Which is I can look at all of the things in the now and embrace them completely with open arms. I can stop fighting what is here now. I can deeply accept everything around me. This radical, deep acceptance involves looking at the contours of my life in the "now" and figuring out what it all means. This is a wonderful use of my mind. Instead of reacting and having circular thoughts about this or that, I can slow down and survey what the landscape of life looks like and proactively take steps to improve it or see ways I can learn from events that led me until now.<br /><br />In my view, being present or living in the now includes taking into account both the past and the future, because the past and the future do exist in the present moment. The present moment is a culmination of the past and the future exists in seed-form in the present moment. To me, living life now means abandoning the story that surrounds the past or limitations that may govern my future, yet I need to completely take in the events that led me up until this point.<br /><br />In short, this means living my life in a grounded way. I leave the should-have's or reading into anything and take things for what they are. Being grounded means seeing the "facts" or bare truth as they are and not denying them as being instrumental stepping stones that created this present moment. And, yes, we can and should use our minds in the process! It may feel good, at first, to naively focus on what is at hand in our lives right now and ignore all that came before it (or will come after it). Yet, life has a way of showing this naivety to us in a way that is not the most comfortable to encourage us to consider the big picture.</div>
Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-28011116607241418862012-08-14T12:25:00.000-07:002012-08-14T12:25:13.186-07:00What Is Time?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaxNlsZ2g-o1SVGeY8TbearVA7ZXVv3qXyuGGJ219shJVnuRT6LnxO0ng1GmykfBsrawnCh3p33FP0XueG9OZt0Rri8BDnOvl6TFvCMZp5rf3t5l-HBdW4jmG1aXb-zhaWgOjrgfh-u0Uj/s1600/2283676770_6b53f8b77f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaxNlsZ2g-o1SVGeY8TbearVA7ZXVv3qXyuGGJ219shJVnuRT6LnxO0ng1GmykfBsrawnCh3p33FP0XueG9OZt0Rri8BDnOvl6TFvCMZp5rf3t5l-HBdW4jmG1aXb-zhaWgOjrgfh-u0Uj/s320/2283676770_6b53f8b77f.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Time is not a resource as it cannot be measured.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Time is inherently unlimited because it is an illusion.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><br />
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There is only the present moment and it has no limit.<br /><br />I cannot say I do not have enough time, because I cannot lack in what is imaginary.<br /><br />We live in the eternal now.<br /><br />-----<br /><br />This photo (<a href="http://bit.ly/PhK2ft" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/PhK2ft</a>), “The Passage of Time” is copyright (c) 2008 Toni Verdú Carbó and made available under a Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 license (<a href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F4DjovT&h=FAQH-KkLN&s=1" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/4DjovT</a>)</div>
Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-64569123862779127062012-06-23T18:57:00.003-07:002012-06-23T22:38:41.123-07:00Poem for a Weary Traveler<br />
Poem for a Weary Traveler<br />
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O, Weary Traveler!<br />
Take off your shoes and come rest<br />
In my home, you can rest easy<br />
In my love, you can relax<br />
For the burdens that you carry<br />
Are made of tiny feathers to me<br />
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<a name='more'></a>O, Worried Traveler,<br />
Why do you worry?<br />
In my house, your troubles are so far away<br />
In my hope, you are free<br />
O dear child, curl up at my feet<br />
And sleep a sound sleep<br />
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O, Burdened Traveler,<br />
Your heaviness is light!<br />
Do you not see?<br />
The things that you cling to<br />
Are but vapors and mist<br />
Let them fade into empty space<br />
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My Dear Traveler,<br />
Come and rest with me!<br />
Let this rest be as long as you like<br />
For I am always with you<br />
Let my light guide you<br />
Let my love hold you<br />
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My Sweet Traveler,<br />
I do love you and care for you<br />
Do you not see?<br />
I am you and you are me<br />
We are one, you and I<br />
We will always dance this dance together<br />
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My Dearest Traveler,<br />
Sleep now and rest<br />
Let my peace be your peace<br />
Let my hope be your hope<br />
You are free now<br />
Rest in my love now, now rest...<br />Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-87331336127631267292012-06-06T18:03:00.000-07:002012-06-23T18:58:27.946-07:00My Thoughts on the Spiritual Life<br />
I decided to make a rather large post that contains a bunch of notes that I have jotted down over the past 9 months or so. These notes are on a variety of topics and are some thoughts I had in the moment. These are unedited, unfiltered and... you get the idea! Enjoy!<br />
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<a name='more'></a><b>Perfection</b><br />
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What does it mean to embody perfection? The first truth to embrace is that there is no failure on the spiritual path. As such, perfection includes both perfect and imperfect acts. We still call it perfection, because the very root of our soul is perfect. There is no judging or labeling of these acts, though, because, in the light of our soul's perfect love, they are perfect. No act that we can ever perform will ever change this truth; nothing can add to or take from our embodied perfection.<br />
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Being perfect is effortless, then, and a relaxing into our natural state of being.<br />
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<b>Spiritual Evolution</b><br />
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I need constant reminders that the goal of spiritual evolution is not a goal in the traditional sense. The goal is a new way of being in the world. The goal is an ideal of perfect love yet we can rest in this ideal because "beingness" does not require "doingness.". The doing effortlessly flows from a place of being. This spiritual path has no end in that the goal is love yet love is infinite. Yet we can say that we rest in this unlimited love. That, in itself is the goal.<br />
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<b>Why Spiritual Teachers May Speak Symbolically</b><br />
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The spiritual masters spoke in parables because, if they told you what you needed to know, you would get caught up in the words. The reality is that only you can find your path to the truth; if someone else shows you, then this is a copy of the truth rather than the real thing.<br />
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The other reason that the masters could not tell you directly is because what they can only talk about is the end result, what it feels or looks like to find your own truth. If they told you directly, you would identify with their words and try to follow them like a prescription.<br />
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The paradox is that you can only get to a place of truth on your own, because there is no where to go to. You are the truth. There also is no search. The search is an illusion and even your idea of "self" is an illusion. The truth is that there is no self and you are the truth. But your identity cannot even be in you being truth, because truth is fluid and is what life is if you would stop labeling and projecting onto it.<br />
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<b>Original Sin</b><br />
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The corollary to original sin in Christianity is original ignorance. It's ignorance of who we really are, the Divine within us, rather than original sin.<br />
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We search for the meaning of life until we realize that there is no need to search and then the search is over. But the search can only be over when we experience that it is not over.<br />
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<b>Doubt</b><br />
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Doubt should not be eradicated, because doubt indicates that you have free choice. However, improperly used, doubt can be used to create anxiety or cause needless worrying. In this way, doubt can be a cancer that eats away at your well-being. If I try to get rid of doubt, it just increases the amount of doubt I have, as doubt is natural.<br />
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Doubt may suppose a few things to be true, which I should take a look at. The first may be I think that the decision is black or white. However, this is never the case. There is never a black or white but different shades of gray. In fact, these shades of gray may change, because there is no absolute right or wrong. If this root cause contributes to your doubt, then what you can do is expand your notion of right or wrong. Have your 2 options encompass more of the gray area.<br />
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The other root cause may be thinking that a decision is permanent. No decision ever is. You are free at any time to choose differently and are not bound by anyone or anything. Even God herself does not bind you in a decision. You always have free will. You are never bound by an oath for all time but can choose freely again at any time. This is what free will is all about. If God herself gives you free will to accept or reject her, then surely you can accept or reject anything of this earth.<br />
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The short answer is go into your doubt and freely explore why you have it. Be willing to live with the questions that you bring up. It is more courageous to live in uncertainty and with flexibility than it is to be resolute in the wrong decision. At the same time, respect the decisions that you made in the past, knowing that, at the time, they were what you wanted. Accept your doubt. Trust yourself that, when the time is ripe, you will know the right decision in a resolute manner. In this way, you rise above your doubt and use it as a catalyst to accept the unknown and live in the moment.<br />
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<b>Exclusivity</b><br />
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There is a confusion in some enlightened Beings teachings that their instruction to take their message to others was to spread exclusivity. However, they simply wanted their followers to spread love others. That was the message. All of the add-ons to the message are simply that, extra fluff around the central core of their teaching.<br />
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<b>Morality</b><br />
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Morality and ethics should always come from what my heart discerns rather than by some rules. In other words, the state of my heart determines my conduct, rather than a set of rules. Some are led to renounce certain things in life, not becase they feel forced but because their level of spiritual realization led them to that path.<br />
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<b>Trinity</b><br />
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There is another trinity that exists. This is the truth that God is inside me, outside me in the world and in other people. This does not have a close correlation with the Biblical trinity but is true nonetheless. At the same time, God is also One in that She is the building block of the reality that gives rise to all 3 manifestations of God.<br />
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There is a tension and paradoxical nature to this truth. This is part of the mystery of God. To me, what this means is that all 3 sources of knowledge and direction should be balanced. I can't rely solely on my intuition yet allow other factors into my decision making process. There is the voice of others, circumstance and reality. Yet the external ways in which God communicates with me and the voice of others need to pass through my inner intuitional filter. In that way, I am guided by a light from within but also allow God to speak to me through othe channels.<br />
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<b>Happiness</b><br />
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The reason why we pursue happiness outside of oneself is because we have disowned parts of ourselves that we are trying to reclaim. These external things remind us of these disowned parts which is why we seek them. However, they do not unite us with ourselves when we attain them. The secret is to imagine our lives as if these things were already attained. How do we feel at that point? Integrate these feelings and attitude into our lives permanently, realizing that our natural state includes these emotions permanently. It is that we feel separate from them yet we are not.<br />
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That is the essence of consciousness, living an integrated life where we feel the entire range of our personality. We live an undivided life where these disparate parts of ourselves exist as one cohesive whole.<br />
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<b>Duality</b><br />
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The truth about there being One God and the focus on God is really also means to put the focus on yourself, the light and the dark. The dark side of ourselves is perfect. Sin is perfect. That is the hard truth. A higher consciousness means abolishing wrong and right. There is only action, cause and effect. The right question is does action bring me closer to love or farther from it? Even actions not motivated by love are perfect. They are vehicles to bring the giver or the receiver to a greater awareness of love. Labeling things as right and wrong imposes my ego on the world. It inflates my ego.<br />
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Right and wrong are reserved for the legal system, not for the spiritual arena.<br />
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<b>Attachment</b><br />
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That attachment to the outcome does not necessarily matter if the action itself is an "attached" action. That is it is possible to have the intention of being unattached but the action itself being attached. Therefor, I am attached to the action. The intention needs to permeate my action so that I can objectively look at it after the fact and know I am operating in an unattached fashion.<br />
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All trials in life are an opportunity to practice detachment. Trials are only good or bad depending on my reaction to them. If I choose to see the good, more good comes to me.<br />
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Joy comes from God. Attachment means that I am clinging to temporary things, attempting to derive happiness from these things.<br />
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How can I label an event good or bad if all things are just vehicles to bring me to God? What is good or bad.<br />
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My happiness comes from within; I choose to see the good in all things.<br />
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<b>Mind of God</b><br />
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My goal is for my thoughts to come more in alignment with how God thinks. God thinks in a non-dualistic way. Either actions are motivated by love or the absence of love. This also means that I stop labeling and judging actions of myself or others. This is very freeing because the world becomes a perfect place. It is not a world of good and evil or something that we need to fix. It just "is.". We do not see sins or good deeds or mistakes or failures. All is perfect. This is how God thinks.<br />
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<b>Goal of Life</b><br />
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The ultimate goal of life is union with the Supreme Power of the Universe. This Power wants all parts of us, what we label good and the bad, for these things are all part of being human. It is easy to give the good parts of us to God, our devotion, good works, and service. It is much harder to surrender the things in our life that we our embarrassed about or feel ashamed of. Yet, these very things are the barriers that separate us from God. God does not see the good or bad in us but has everlasting Love for each of us. She sees these things as simply a part of our nature, and it is us who put labels on our thoughts or actions. The irony of this is our shame and guilt arise from not turning these things over to a Higher Power yet this action is what will free us from these feelings. We are neither good nor bad yet perfect in the sight of God. The sooner that we realize this, the sooner this veil of separation is lifted.<br />
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<b>Purpose of Religion</b><br />
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All religion is trying to cultivate, whether it knows it or not, a sensitivity to your own Spirit. Trying to train you to listen to that voice inside you, that voice of knowing that can discern whether something is Truth or not. Not Truth or not but that guiding voice within you that directs your actions and that, once you are in touch with that Voice, that part of you that is your Spirit, that is eternal. That, basically, knows everything... once you're in touch with that, religion is secondary. Religion is a vehicle to get you to that place. But, once you're there, religions are your playground at that point. They are something that are useful to play with. Are useful to try to see in what ways they can help you get rid of attachment, but they are not your guiding light/force anymore. That guiding light is within you. Religion is trying to light that candle within you. To really show you the light that is already within you.<br />
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<b>Pain</b><br />
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Emotional pain is a necessary part of life. By avoiding pain, we are avoiding a part of ourselves. Pain essentially takes over a part of you. So the more pain you have, the less of you that you feel. <br />
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The solution is to always feel this pain. We think that not feeling this pain is safe but the reality is that feeling this pain is getting a part of ourselves back.<br />
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In this way, there is joy in pain because emotional pain is freeing. We feel pain because these parts of ourselves are unintegrated. But if we welcome the possibility of always feeling this pain, the pain is transmuted into joy.<br />
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Also, there is the idea that pain is the root of all problems. That we react unconsciously because of this pain. If we were all real with one another and lived our pain, then we would be real and joyful.<br />
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Pain is really joy inside me. The reason I associate pain with feeling depressed and not joyful is because it's the avoidance of the pain that creates a feeling of unhappiness.<br />
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However, pain is actually joy. If we go into our pain, we will see that it becomes joy. This is because the pain is a dissociated part of ourselves. That's why we feel pain, because we are not united with this part. The lie is that if we avoid pain that it will go away. However, this just numbs us; the pain is always there. The pain then grows because we are then dissociating more of ourselves from ourselves. This happens until we come to a breaking point. <br />
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The answer is to go into the pain and feel it. Feel these emotions. It needs to be a steady dose as this cannot happen all at once. As we go into the pain, this part of ourselves becomes reassociated. We become whole. This is a process.<br />
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There's always going to be additional pain that we are going to accumulate in life, because pain is a very necessary part of life. Suffering is identifying the pain as ourself. However, it is not. The pain is from the dissociation. So, go into it and you will find that it is joy.<br />
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<br /></div>Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-6757547729738263832012-05-26T23:08:00.000-07:002012-05-26T23:08:06.314-07:00The Two Sides of Spirituality<br />
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<span style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Tahoma;">In this podcast, I talk about two sides of spirituality, truth and love. The truth side is knowledge beyond mind and one way of expressing this truth is that I accept everything as it is, as I perceive it, both the good and bad, light and dark. The love side is that enlightenment is possible, my essence is pure love, and I live my life in pursuit of an ideal. A miracle occurs when we allow these seemingly paradoxical sides to co-exist in our being. I will further explore these two sides of spirituality as well as talk about how living this paradox shapes us on the spiritual path</span></div>
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</div>Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-45760142174896365592012-04-29T00:51:00.000-07:002012-06-23T19:00:09.290-07:00The Paradox of Awakening<span style="font-family: Tahoma;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><i>"Awakening is beyond time and is more a state of realization that we can come to that is the nature of who we always were."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma;">A recent "thought" occurred to me that paradox is very important on the spiritual path. Our brain has two hemispheres, right and left. The left hemisphere is where most logic and reasoning takes place and the right hemisphere is where most creative and holistic thinking takes place. My theory that I would like to propose is that ego lives primarily in the left-brain and that a move "mind to heart" on the spiritual path is a movement from left-brained to right-brained thinking. In this theory, I propose that paradox is a tool that we can use to help confuse the left-brain and encourage right-brain function.</span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">In no way does this theory minimize the ethereal, spiritual side to life but actually makes spirituality more exciting. I view right-brain functioning as the physical tool that our consciousnesses uses to enter material form. In other words, this is a physical correlation to our "spiritual body." In the west, we are so used to using logic and reasoning and have a strong ego identity. We need extra help to learn how to think in a more integrated way. In this way, the entire brain is used, yet, to us Westerners, integrated thinking may feel more right-brained since we participated in left-brained thinking for so long.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma;">With paradox, two contradictory statements exist at the same time. I have described this in other posts as learning the ability to think in two or more planes. In each plane, the statement is true. With paradox, my theory is that this encourages right-brain function as this location would be the "glue" where these statements are held together.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Moving on from a physical mapping from spirituality to the brain, I see paradox as sort of "short-circuiting" our rational mind, which has an effect of turning it off. Paradox is extremely important, because I believe that consciousness or "being more conscious" consists of living the paradox.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma;">In a previous podcast, I explored the paradox of awakening in which I stated these two truths, which I feel are important or vital to being more conscious. First, I relax my identification with mental, egoic structures. Second, I embrace all aspects of awareness as me. There are two paradoxes in these statements. The first paradox is that "I am nothing, yet I am everything." Both of these statements are true, because the first "I" is ego. This means that the ego does not exist. The second "I" is awareness or consciousness which is everything and encompasses ego. The second paradox is that "There is no 'I' but 'I' must realize that 'I' encompass the 'I'." A way of restating the second paradox is that "'I' am awareness." If I am awareness, then there is no "I" in the first place.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma;">The last paradox I will explore is the misconception of a time-based component of awakening. If I am thinking that awakening was rooted or will be rooted in time, in other words, is an event that happens in time, then I am not talking about awakening but an experience. If an experience is rooted in time, then it is subject to duality. Time is a mental construct that is part of the world of form. Awakening is beyond time and is more a state of realization that we can come to that is the nature of who we always were. The paradox here is that, awakening in the world of form does appear to have a time-based component in that maybe there is a definite point at which we awaken. However, in order for this awakening to occur, we must not think of it as being a future event or subject to time at all. That it is a realization of our true nature.</span></div>Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-67938664343380166602012-04-23T09:56:00.002-07:002012-06-23T18:58:57.100-07:00Embrace Who You Are<br />
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"The way you are, the way you feel right in this moment is perfection."</div>
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All spiritual teachings approach spirituality from different viewpoints or planes. For me to approach spirituality from a different plane does not invalidate other teachings, it simply just offers teachings from another, different plane. Truth is inclusive, not exclusive. It is possible, when truths are contained on different planes, for all truths to be simultaneously true. It is with that awareness that I write the following.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>I have noticed a tendency among New Age teachers to focus on attainment of a future state as a goal. In fact, these teachers proclaim “enlightenment” as a goal. They say that happiness and love are our true nature (I have even said or written that as well). Even if we take this “state” or “way of being” out of the future, saying that we are a certain state or should be in a certain state is what I would to like offer a different take on.<br />
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Here is the plane I would like to talk from. Enlightenment or awakening does not exist. Joy is not an emotion. Love, the way I talk about it, is not an emotion. In fact, in my definition, joy and love are the same thing; they are not feelings, but a state of awareness. There is nothing to attain. There is nothing you need to be. You already ARE it. Joy and love encompass both happiness, sadness, compassion, hate and fear. In this plane I talk about, the law of attraction breaks. This is because there is nothing to attract. If you ARE it, if you ARE everything that you ever need, then what you are trying to attract is yourself. Well, that is impossible, because you are already you. Trying to attain any future state will always result in ultimate failure.<br />
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What a beautiful proposition! You have the freedom to be any way that you want, because you have been taken off of the hook. The way you are, the way you feel right in this moment is perfection. Perfection includes both perfection and imperfection. This is because perfection is simply wholeness. It is completeness. It is realizing that every loving thought and shaming thought are both you. It is realizing that your elated euphoria and deep depression are also you. Feeling an orgasm or pain is also you. You are perfect exactly as you are.<br />
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This is the paradox. It is only through embracing our light and our shadow in this present moment that we are joy or love. Yes, we may feel feelings of elatedness or happiness yet this is not the goal. You may feel depressed yet that is also joy.<br />
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It is embracing who you are right now that is true freedom. Be mad, be angry, be forgiving, be happy, be anything you want. Isn’t that freedom? If that is not freedom, I do not know what is. Of course, there is the law of cause and effect, so, if I am mad at someone or treat them in a rude manner, then that will be reflected back at me at some point.<br />
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Saying that we should all be happy all the time or positive and that, not being that way is not true spirituality, is just religion all over again. Isn’t that what we are trying to avoid in the first place? We are running away from religion right into religious dogma all over again.Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-91158538661666216202012-04-18T23:51:00.002-07:002012-04-18T23:53:52.356-07:00Beyond Heaven and HellIn this podcast I explore what it would mean if, instead of thinking of heaven or hell existing in the future, we thought of it existing in this present moment. What would this mean for us in our everyday lives? I also talk about duality, what it means to transcend duality and the ultimate goal of the spiritual life.<br />
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</div>Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-90458974736551877722012-04-17T15:14:00.000-07:002012-04-17T15:14:55.484-07:00Tying Up The Strong ManIn this podcast, I give my own meaning of a parable that Jesus told that I call "Tying Up the Strong Man" and interpret this in the light of other spiritual teachings. I also explore why we need to label thing, people and experiences in our life and what it would mean if we stopped doing so.<br />
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</div>Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-82239039340800817892012-04-16T12:43:00.001-07:002012-04-16T12:44:12.581-07:00The Purpose of ReligionIn this post, I explore the purpose of religion. In the process, I also define terms for related topics, such as the role of love, our basic nature and others. This is a very high-level discussion and touches on quite a few areas. Enjoy!<br />
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</div>Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-77502047187352109562012-04-12T00:50:00.001-07:002012-04-12T17:06:54.179-07:00Unitive Consciousness and ChristianityThis is my first podcast so please bear with me while I work out all of the details! For now, I will go ahead and post these with regular blog updates so there is one place to go. Thanks for listening and I welcome any and all feedback!<br />
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This post explores a New Age concept called Unitive or Non-Dual Consciousness and how it relates to Christianity. This is my first ever podcast so I also talk a bit about how I personally define some of these terms. I wrote this post to show how one major religion fits in with New Age themes and hopefully to show that all religions have a common element of truth that undergirds them all.<br />
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</div>Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-47916188516168979212012-04-09T12:19:00.000-07:002012-06-12T11:38:54.840-07:00The Illusion of Beauty<i>"Beauty outside ourselves is truly an illusion"</i><br />
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If we look at that statement first glance, it may strike us in a discordant way. This is because it flies in the face of our material world. Everything within our material world has been set up to exalt beauty, in any form, as the ultimate thing to strive for. Beautiful homes, beautiful cars, beautiful men, beautiful women, etc. It can be argued that even money is a means to an end in the quest for beauty: beautiful make-up, clothes and other things that will make us feel or look beautiful. Of course, there are other things we strive for such as safety, fulfillment and other non-tangible things.<br />
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Someone recently told me that all of the quest for things outside ourself can be boiled down to one quest. The irony is that this quest can never be achieved. In fact, just stating it makes us feel a bit insane in even embarking on it. The quest for us all in some form is to try and turn spirit into matter. This can not be done. Whenever we are striving, desiring or craving anything outside ourselves, we are trying to turn spirit into matter. Isn't this crazy? Yet, there is something inside us that pushes us towards this fool's errand.<br />
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I submit that the reason why, like magicians, we are constantly trying to turn spirit into matter, love and happiness into objects, is that we are, in fact, spirit. On our deepest level, we know we are spirit. We know we are eternal beings that are traveling through this life. What we have forgotten, however, is that our quest for beauty is also a quest for perfection. Beauty and perfection reside within us. We run around life like vaporous spirits trying to consume anything and everything yet this passes right through us. It is when our bottomless appetite and unquenchable thirst is directed to the abundant and unending supply within us that we are satisfied.<br />
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How do we do this? It is by right knowledge and experience. We realize that we have a bottomless and fathomless supply inside us and then we experience this through a spiritual practice that resonates with us. For some this could be meditation, painting, writing, making music, walking, or some other activity. The only requirement is that this be something that stills our mind and lets us touch the deep peace and wide love within our hearts and souls. The experience of this miracle supply brings things within proper perspective. We truly realize that we are enough. We see anything outside ourselves as cheap imitations of the beauty and perfection within.<br />
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Coming back to the topic of beauty, beauty is an illusion because objects themselves are not beautiful. They simply remind us of the beauty within us. The lie is that the beauty is intrinsic to the object, but the truth is that beauty is intrinsic to you. This truth brings more meaning to the statement: "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Love and beauty cannot be separated. It can be said that an object that makes us feel emotions pertaining to beauty in actuality is also helping us feel loving emotions. Beautiful objects, people or making ourselves appear more beautiful is an attempt to increase the love within our own hearts. This makes us feel more loved.<br />
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Beauty, as such, should be recognized as pointers to our internal beauty and not as a quest. We, however, do reside in a material world and have been socially conditioned in many ways that are even outside our consciousness. We simultaneously value beauty outside ourselves for what it represents and also quench our desire for external beauty with our inner source. Yet, there is inner tension that exists in this paradox and that is part of the human experience. Of course, we can and should value anything beautiful that we wish yet it is done so in the proper scope and not made into a quest.<br />
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We stop trying to turn spirit into matter through quenching our desire for the intangible and spiritual through journeying within. It is when our spiritual life is our first and foremost priority that we realize that beauty outside ourselves is truly an illusion. This actually frees us to pursue whatever we wish in life and begin to separate ourselves from unconscious urges and drives.Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-60293064105161296992012-04-01T07:28:00.000-07:002012-04-01T07:28:06.088-07:00Love and Lead Your Self<i>"Only through simultaneously loving and leading these ego "silos" will they be united with our Self into one integrated whole."</i><br />
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<blockquote>After breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?"<br />
"Yes, Master, you know I love you."<br />
Jesus said, "Feed my lambs."<br />
He then asked a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?"<br />
"Yes, Master, you know I love you."<br />
Jesus said, "Shepherd my sheep."<br />
Then he said it a third time: "Simon, son of John, do you love me?"<br />
Peter was upset that he asked for the third time, "Do you love me?" so he answered, "Master, you know everything there is to know. You've got to know that I love you."<br />
Jesus said, "Feed my sheep." (John 21:15-17)</blockquote><br />
I want to offer a commentary on the above Bible passage that is probably different than most. Since I do choose to see more of a symbolic meaning to most religious writings, I look for a deeper meaning. I see Jesus as a man that was so identified with God that that line of separation was erased. His main mission, in my eyes, was to teach others that they could achieve that same higher state of consciousness and that God dwells within all people. It is the in-dwelling of God that unites us all.<br />
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I freely interchange references to Jesus as references to God and also interchange these terms as references to Self. A deeper meaning or question in this passage is "Do you love your Self more than any other internal or external structure?" By loving the Self, we are simultaneously loving ourselves and all other people, as our link to God through the Self, is also shared by all other beings.<br />
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It appears too that Jesus used the repetition to illustrate a point about Peter's love: that it was conditional on Jesus acting in a certain way. Peter was reading into Jesus' repetition, that Jesus doubted Peter's love for him. The symbolism is that Peter was upset with himself because he doubted his own love for himself. By using repetition, Jesus was also stressing the importance of the message.<br />
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I find Jesus' response interesting and interpret "sheep" or "lambs" as the different states of ego. By asking Peter to feed or shepherd, Jesus was saying that he needed to do two different things in order to love his Self. He needed to love these parts of himself that were compartmentalized or perceived to be separate through caring for them. He also needed to unite these separated parts of himself through leading them with his Higher Self. Just like a shepherd looks at his flock with love and compassion, cares for them and leads them, so are we to do the same when our Self, as the observer, notices fractured parts of the ego within us. Only through simultaneously loving and leading these ego "silos" will they be united with our Self into one integrated whole.Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-73918006575444315692012-03-19T14:31:00.001-07:002013-07-07T14:48:27.027-07:00Sign up for my newsletter or daily texts!I send out a monthly newletter as well as send out daily, inspirational and thought-provoking spiritual text messages. Please see the <a href="http://highertruths.blogspot.com/p/quotes.html">Quotes</a> tab above to see past quotes I have sent out. If you would like to subscribe to either the newsletter or daily texts please do so below. You may also request that I just send out one text message to you per week. Please know that your information is only seen by me and is kept in strict confidentiality. It is only used by me to send out spirituality-based communication to you. You can unsubscribe at any time.<br />
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<!-- End myContactForm.com Form HTML -->Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-88735943431295389632012-02-16T06:13:00.001-08:002012-02-16T06:18:00.466-08:00The Mystery of Religion, Part 1<div><div><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"></span><br />
<div><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><i>"Love is perfect because it exists above duality."</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">This is definitely going to be a multi-part post, because this topic is fairly large and touches on many of the things that I have posted about previously. In a way, I feel that my approach to the "mystery" that ties together various religions does also tie together many ideas I have put forth in my writings (although based off of and inspired by many spiritual teachers). That is my draw to writing about spirituality in the first place; it is writing about the ideal. We can never fully express an ideal, because it is ineffable. But we can approach it from various angles. Each approach offers a glimpse of the ideal for a brief moment. And it is the assimilation of these glimpses that begins to paint a vignette of the ideal that helps solidify our faith.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">I cannot help but notice that religions all can be expressed in terms of us being reunited with God or the Ideal. The ideal is a state of perfection, that I simplify as a state of love. However, the idea of God is esoteric at best and it is difficult for us to conceptualize this Deity. We may lack the motivation for performing certain acts now for a future payoff. All of these things: God, heaven and other spiritual concepts have a vaporous quality to them because it is difficult to imagine them (or how they apply) in the here and now.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">With a slight tweak to religion, however, we can experience a paradigm shift where spiritual teachings take on a whole new meaning. Since we are waves on the ocean of God, we are also a part of God. I invite you to look at a return to God as a return to your whole Self. Looked at in this context, things start to make more sense for me. And this is not to devalue religion at all but simply to offer another view of it.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">If pursuing God is also pursuing a whole, complete me, then what do I have to lose? I am actually investing in myself through pursuing God as I am really pursuing my Self. This also brings up a paradox, which I do believe is the unseen's main device for spiritual truth. All of nature is an outward manifestation of our inward reality. When spiritual teachers say "the kingdom of heaven is inside you", they really do mean that the entire cosmos is also in your Spirit. Our human bodies are containers for a limitless space that exists within. The physical world is a model of what lies within us. So, yes, countless galaxies, solar systems, stars, planets and suns exist within us. In fact, our soul spans infinite depths.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">That is also why I believe that the entire spiritual world also exists within our Spirit. God and the angels reside within us as well as demons. However, this is to realize that angels and demons are not the same. There is no opposite for God and no opposite for love and, therefor, no opposite for angels either. Any dark force is actually tied to the temporal existence of this world and exists on a different, lower plane than ultimate truth and love, which is the highest plane. This is also why, if you stay in the present moment and embody love, that we do not have to fear anything. I have gone into this previously a bit but will touch on my belief that the shadow that exists in individual and collective unconscious is the psychological component of dark forces.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">This next idea opens up pandora's box because it is paradoxical in its very nature, but, if we choose to look at things from one plane alone, that is the physical plane, religious ideas can be theorized about in the following manner. This is also a nice exercise to do when you are reading any religious writing. Read it from the perspective that God is your Higher Self. In other words, God is a restored, whole You that lies within the perfection of love. You see, love does not reside in the intellect where we can say this is wrong or this is right but is seated in the emotions and extends into the spiritual realm. That is the perfection that we are talking about. Love is perfect because it exists above duality. Read anything that talks about dark forces or spirits from the perspective that these lie in your shadow.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">If we continue with this idea, angels, then, also reside within you as different parts of your personality, different loving qualities that offer guidance to you. This theory begins to break down a bit when we get to shared spiritual experiences, where spirits are manifest for many people. I believe this is because the spirits come through our senses, in other words, manipulate our senses so that we can perceive them even in a group setting. So, belief is absolutely necessary when talking about the spirit world. If you do not believe, you block even your perception of such things. The paradox of this is I do think there is some cross-over where physical reality is changed through a spiritual dimension but that does not change the core of this idea much.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">There are many more implications of looking at spiritual matters through this lens, which is the physical manifestation of these realities through humans. To summarize, there is much value in considering restoring our full humanity as achieving unity with God. This makes spiritual matters practical. This is not the only plane on which we can consider truth, but a valuable one and one that is often suppressed because it is considered "heretical" by some religions.</span></div></div></div>Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-75740400249511080552012-02-13T01:58:00.000-08:002012-02-13T02:01:22.053-08:00Victors In Life<i>"We are victors in life when we receive bad news with as much joy as good news and see the blessing in trials. You have risen above this world and cannot be moved."</i><br />
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This is part of the paradox of spirituality. To many, they look at a statement that we can be happy during sad times and do not understand it. This is foolishness to many. This is because there are many hidden truths that undergird this statement.<br />
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Since we are spirit, in essence, we do need to fear anything. We will live eternally without any effort on our part and we cannot lose our lives. If we consider our earthly existence to be our life, then we have something to fear. However, our earthly existence is but a shell for our spirit.<br />
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A recurrent theme that I am experiencing now is learning to think outside of duality. Some say this is how supreme consciousness thinks, and that this is the ideal we should all aspire to.<br />
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The essence of suffering is attachment to outcome. Attachment to outcome is being tied to our earthly existence, that is duality. In its basic form, duality consists of labeling things. We label this good and that bad. However, labeling prevents us from experiencing the "subject of our labeling" fully. We do not see it as a unique experience but want to categorize it with prior experiences, even before we get a chance to experience it!<br />
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We are victors in life when we receive bad news with as much joy as good news and see the blessing in trials. You have risen above this world and cannot be moved. To not be attached to outcome means that we truly our joyous in all things, which is our basic nature anyways. If we are filled with joy in trying times, how easy is it to be filled with joy in the normal, everyday life?<br />
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To have attained such an ideal, is truly living in heaven while you are still on earth. An undercurrent to this topic, which I will touch on briefly, is the reason why we have trials. A trial is only "trying" if it touches a part of us that is identified with pain. The blessing in a trial is the opportunity to heal this pain through forcing us to confront why we are feeling it in the first place.<br />
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Once we receive healing for this pain, we then break the cycle of karma that led us to put ourselves in a situation that would stir the pain up. That is the joy we must have when in a difficult situation. Feel the associated pain but realize that it is really joy that has been disguised and that you are making progress on your spiritual path.Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-27891623950286210682012-02-03T08:02:00.000-08:002012-02-03T09:56:17.921-08:00Four Paths to LoveI have been doing some thinking lately on the different ways that we seek a Power greater than ourselves. We all have different concepts of what this Power is as well as a different path to get there. It is my sincere belief that the path really does not matter. In fact, you cannot run from this Power because even a path that seemingly goes away from it will eventually bring you back to it. In my post "<a href="http://highertruths.blogspot.com/2012/01/one-truth.html">One Truth</a>", I write that this power really is Love. I will not go into this here but one of the reasons why a path away from love will eventually come back to it is because of the dualistic nature of our world. If we seek after happiness that is tied to our temporal existence, it will end in sadness. This is the design that will give you an opportunity to embrace love when we are able to see this duality.<br />
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I perceive that there are four paths to Love, which I believe does not have an opposite. I started writing this article just thinking about three paths but another one occurred to me, which is the last path. Admittedly, there is a blending of different paths into one another yet I do perceive them to be separate concepts. Through these paths, this leads us to eventually being united with Love.<br />
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The first path is that Love exists as an Unseen force outside ourselves. We might think that we will be united with this Love in an afterlife, want to prostrate ourselves before this force or worship it. On this path, there may be a lot of intellectual dogma or ritual yet it is the rising above all of this that one progresses on this path.<br />
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The second path is that Love is omnipresent and, in fact, is so ingrained into reality that one may not perceive it at all. On this path, one may not even believe in a supernatural and focus more on one's own humanness. This may be the most surprising path of all. How can one be united with Love if one really does not even believe in it in the first place? This is a bit difficult to explain but it is my belief that Reality is a manifestation of Love. A key part of this path is one must work on developing oneself and also knowing themselves completely. I see this as a path of continual self-development.<br />
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The third path is that Love is inside us. If we journey deep within ourselves, we find the Source we have been looking for all along. This is a path of letting go and realizing that we are a part of this Love, a wave on the ocean of Love. On this path, one will meditate and introspect in order to become conscious of this Power.<br />
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The fourth path, and one that is so obvious that I overlooked it when originally writing this, is that Love is in other people. There is a profound paradox here. Some people lament that their Deity is not in human form and long to have physical contact with her. All the while, God is in human form in the hearts of all people. This is why being of service increases the love in your heart as you are progressing along this path.<br />
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All four paths are genuine paths and one is not better than the other. Certain people may gravitate towards one path or some mixture of them and that is their prerogative to pursue their own bliss. For me, I think the greatest power is in being conscious of all these different ways to Love and then combining them. Rather than me proclaiming "my path" as the best, I try to stretch myself to incorporate principles from each path. If we become open to Love and embrace all ideas (that is, we are open to all religious thoughts), then we are open to growth. Some truths resonate with you and some do not. Embrace the ones that do and ignore the ones that do not. However, if we never allow the truth to enter in the first place, then we do not have the opportunity to grow.Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6687491593068560104.post-40282287433482067402012-02-01T23:52:00.000-08:002012-02-02T09:36:41.150-08:00Law of Surrender<i>"Once surrender takes place, this is the beginning point for Love to enter our heart and expand it."</i><br />
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After writing about the Law of Brokenness, I reflected a bit on why I perceived this to be a law as well as what other factors influenced it. The more I thought about it (and a friend's comments made me introspect more on this), the more I came to the conclusion that there was a deeper law at work, which I will call the Law of Surrender.<br />
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Brokenness is a vehicle that brings us to surrender. But surrender is really where the Power lies. We can be broken and not surrender to a Higher Power, in which case we have cut ourselves off from this Power transforming us. Also, we can be unbroken and surrender to a Higher Power and be transformed from the inside out. The point is that ultimate goal is a shrinking of the ego through a surrendering of it to a Power greater than ourselves.<br />
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If someone already is not self-identified with the ego and surrenders the totality of themselves to this Power, then transformation occurs. What exactly are we surrendering? We are surrendering the control of our lives.<br />
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You see, as I have explored in a previous post called <a href="http://highertruths.blogspot.com/2011/11/illusion-of-control.html">Illusion of Control</a>, we really are not in control of our lives anyways. If we deeply reflect on this point, we will see that the only practical conclusion is to give this control away. To whom are we surrendering? The easiest way to understand this is that we are surrendering to Reality. We accept life on life's terms, the reality of our situation and how we can operate within the context of reality or the "flow of life."<br />
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Once surrender takes place, this is the beginning point for Love to enter our heart and expand it. This expansion of the heart continues with no end as long as we are on this path. We find the truth in the concept that one must lose her life in order to find it.Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15316107543429489234noreply@blogger.com0