.

January 19, 2010

Living in and out...

There is an expression that is usually used as an insult to "pop" Christianity that goes something like; "If Jesus were to come back and saw what has been done in His name, He would not stop puking"; sometimes I know what this means...

About ten years ago Jeremy Sisto did a television miniseries called "Jesus" that I was extremely impressed with. It opens with assorted scenes from the last 2000 years of soldiers going to war in the name of Jesus, the dying calling out His name and such in a dream that Jesus is having before His mission actually begins.

Later when Lucifer visits Jesus before the crucifixion in an attempt to dissuade him from going through with it, we return to the opening montage scenes with Lucifer going on about how the people will not get it, it will be a waste of time, and what they will do in the name of Jesus.

I sometimes wonder if the Prophet Muhammad makes such an issue that he is only a prophet in an attempt to avoid what Christianity had done to Jesus. At the time of Muhammad, Christianity was coming out of a collection of ecumenical battles over Jesus' nature(s) as both man and God; the process of His deification was pretty well cemented.

Have you ever seen the movie "Monty Python's Life of Brian"? The first time I saw it was at the Tivoli Theatre in St. Louis' University City. There is a scene in it where Brian's followers are bickering over the sacred relics, one group is revering the "Gourd, the Sacred Gourd" and the other group has the "Sandal, the Sacred Sandal".

Some friends came over for a little party the other day and gave me an example of something that is the nightmare of any teacher. We had a conversation that went something like this:
F: What is the importance of the Spirit in everyday life?
S: (pause to gather thoughts)
F: He shows us that meditation and contemplation is important before speaking.
S: The Spirit is our source, so if we try to live without it how can we truly claim honesty in our lives?
F: He shows us that the answer is withing so he answers questions with questions to make us examine our own hearts for the truth.
S: Why are you doing this to me?
F: He points out that our intentions and motivations are important to understand our questions.
S: Oh, God help me!
F: He tells us that we may call upon deity for protection.

ad nauseum
Now I know my friends mean it as both a joke and as a way to poke at me. I do not take myself that seriously, but in the directions that I am going, it is likely that in time there will be those who will do this.

I see it happening to teachers ranging from Wayne Dyer to Deepak Chopra and especially with religious teachers like Paramahansa Yogananda, Swami Prabhupada and Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati. The students tend to infer and interpret into what is said, even when the teacher is outside their "teaching" and just living as happened with the Prophet Muhammad and is encoded into the Hadith.



I guess the point I am trying to make is that no matter who the teacher is or what the teaching is, there is a point where one has to go from listening and interpreting what the teacher says and implement the teaching into one's life.

As much as I love to teach, know that I and EVERY teacher is also a human and we are not intending to teach at every moment. Remember that a true teacher lives what he teaches, so attempt to overlay their teaching over how and what they live.

I teach that Spirit is the core of my "self" and that this body is the vehicle of that Spirit and should be enjoyed. You may find me out having a drink, dancing (or as close as I get) or any number of activities, some of which you may not find congruent with what I teach, trust me it is and if you wish understanding just ask, I will try to explain it. But PLEASE do not interpret some "holy" message into everything, I will get annoyed and you will miss the point, I can nearly guarantee it.

January 13, 2010

Coincidence and Seeing Miracles

I am a firm believer that those little moments of coincidences that occur in our day to day lives are something we really should keep an eye out for. So often we just ignore them as little curiosities and don't really pay them any mind.

How sad!!!

Reality is SO dependent on perception that to completely disregard the small moments that are around us is to create the mindset that makes seeing the big miracles impossible.

Humans seem to have a nature of becoming "familiar" with some situation and when the strange happens we become incapable of seeing it because it outside our expected parameters. How can we expect to see miracles when we require all things to be defined within the limiting parameters.

I have heard it said that when Columbus first arrived in the new world that the inhabitants were likely unable to see the ships on the horizon since they were completely outside the realm of experience they had had to date.

The shaman may have looked out at the sea and not seen the ships but seeing the wake of bow in the water continued to watch until he could see its cause.

Every day we are given the opportunity to see the new realms and things that are all around us, do we really wish to miss it since we did not expect them? I love seeing new things and finding out just how off the universe really is, what about you?

January 5, 2010

Thinking may be your big mistake - pt 2

Is "wealth" always wealth?

We think wealth is a good thing, no worries (true or not I will leave for you to determine on your own). When we look closer at the word "wealth" often what people are thinking is "an end to my poverty" or "the ability to pay my high bills" or something like this, see the problem?

Exactly, the focus is not really wealth but what wealth will remove, hence the universe tends to create more bills, debt or poverty; it is what was focused on.

Now if you wish to reclaim the word and idea of wealth, first you have to adjust your meanings and hence your intentions. Once you have succeeded in this, then you can use the 4 Evolutionary Stages to Manifestation to work through the rest of the distance.

The universe for all its vastness and power is actually amazingly direct and simple, we over-complicate IT. I tend to think this has to do with the idea that we are taught that it has to be difficult, that our interactions must be tainted by the curse of Adam and Eve on their expulsion from the Garden:

...in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Genesis 3:17c-19 (KJV)
The difficulty here is that the universe does not actually understand the duality in which we believe that we exist, the universe functions upon the premise that if you are willing to put energy into it, you must want it to manifest, hence we tend to manifest a lot of what we do not want by accident and simple carelessness.

This is why people in knowledge a quoted saying things like:

I was once asked why I don't participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there.

Mother Theresa
The problem is not what the hope is but the focus, anti or otherwise, is war. So the universe manifests more war because you placed your thoughts and focus on it; for all its massiveness the universe doesn't understand "NO". This is very closely related to the malformation I was referring earlier.

The other aspect of this is that words do not always mean to us what we think they do. Many of my clients and students are often asking for wealth early in their practices. Not a bad thing, but what is wealth? (Another topic for another day)

When we try some of the techniques for assessing the personal meaning of words, what we often find is what they really are thinking is removing poverty, their bills or whatever financial issues they may have. They are not really thinking about wealth and of many who are, they have negative feelings toward it from some aspect in their lives.

I think these can all be dealt with in time, but for those who are in more of a hurry, we can find a phraseology that works for them or an idea tailored to their thoughts and mindsets.


Using the 4 Evolutionary Stages to Manifestation

Unto themselves the first two steps are not the most helpful in the actual act of manifesting, they have valid uses that can be helpful and here's a quick summary of how.

I mentioned that many of my clients and students start off wanting to manifest money or wealth. When their manifesting doesn't seem to be working or in many cases backfires here is something I run into a lot.

Many people find that their level of self-worth is often the issues, they do not deserve to be wealthy for whatever reason. While you can start a process of re-defining what wealth means for you, a good thing actually, you can also implement the 4 Evolutionary Stages to help you while you are doing this.

  1. I want

    It is always a good idea to know what it is you want before you start trying to manifest, otherwise no telling what you will actually create. Analyze the terms you are using to see if they truly mean what you are planning to use them for.

    If wealth is a word that actually means "avoiding poverty" or something like it, find a different word or phrase to use. If you know you are using the "right" expressions then you cannot help but be headed in the right direction.

  2. I can

    This is where you give yourself permission to manifest and have. I am sometimes amazed by the amount of self-loathing that can come up from within when people are trying to manifest a new future for themselves.

    As humans we seem to have an over-abundance of self-judgment toward the negative. I have watched so many destroy their attainment of their dreams because on some level they believe themselves to be unworthy. This can show up in many ways such as unintentionally sabotaging yourself at work or relationships to never attempting your heart's desires.

  3. I will

    Once we know ourselves to be worthy of attaining our wants, sometimes we need some time to get used to the fact that we ARE headed towards our goal. This is where you get to enjoy the anticipation of your manifestation's arrival and possibly doing what they universe asks of you to bring it to you.

    If you are asking for happiness at work, the universe may require you to release some old hurt that you continually bring back. I find in many ways that many of the things we try to manifest are already actually before us, but we cannot see them because we have blinded ourselves due to some "thing" we are fixated on, often unconsciously.

  4. I am/have

    This is where you own your creation, it is not a hope for the future but a done deal that you will find shortly. You have to be able truly to perceive this as reality; creation/manifestation is an act of will and anything less than that full force will introduce delays.

    Jesus talks about the faith of a mustard seed. If you can muster(d - sorry) that minute amount of true faith and belief the universe will respond in kind.
Do not worry about how the manifestation will occur, that is not your job, your job is to see the outcome and let the universe take it from there.

The vast majority of healers I have spoken to do not worry about how a broken bone is going to mend itself, they visualize the patient running or using the bone as it was intended to be, do likewise in your manifestations.

January 4, 2010

Thinking may be your big mistake - pt 1

Of the many questions that I run into a lot about the Law of Attraction (LoA), the most common has to do with why their thoughts and wishes are not manifesting what people are expecting and often not at all. When this comes up, I first ask what the "thought" they are putting out is. Often I find the answer almost immediately.

I would say that nearly 99% of the time the thought is malformed as well as the phrasing being out of alignment with what they want.

As a general rule, I find that there are four basic ways in which thoughts for manifesting run:
  1. Inception/Desire (I want)

    This is where the vast majority of people spend their lives, they want, but they never go beyond the "wanting" and into the creating. The funniest part of it is that when you begin to understand how the universe of creation works and what activates manifestation, this becomes a "no duh" idea.

    Where "wanting" fails is that there is no action in wanting and no requirement for manifestation, it is a completely manifested state unto itself.

    You say: "I want a bicycle" so the universe responds with "OK, he wants, my job is done" hence there is no action to be taken! The action in a "want" is the wanting, it has nothing to do with the bicycle.

  2. Possibility (I can)


    We say: "I can have a new bicycle", now what could be wrong with that? Of course nothing, but there is no activating principle to the thought. Nothing in the thought causes action, it is an opening of possibility.

    I will address in the next entry where this thought (as well as all of them) can be used to start manifestation, but unto itself you are not likely to manifest from it alone.

  3. Probability/Potentiality (I will)


    "I will have a new bicycle!"

    Better, but now we have placed it into the future. Not a problem, but I tend to prefer my manifestations to be as close to immediate from my limited linear time perceptions (Robert makes a bad existential joke).

    Now this thought can manifest your wishes, the question is just when. The future is one of those things that really doesn't exist, it appears to have substance. It has the same reality as the past, we remember the past, we plan the future but the "NOW" truly is the only substantial thing.

    The vast majority of people spend their lives chasing this illusion of "when" or "then" and in the process miss all the now's that could have been used to create the things they are dreaming of.

  4. Manifestation (I am/have)


    "I have a new bicycle!"

    This is where we truly manifest, as one of the TV Evangelists I heard to used to say, "You cannot have a miracle by wanting one, you have to claim it as your own". There is great truth in this.

    If you look at the opening of Genesis, God does not say I want light, can have light or will have light, but owns the concept of light and says "Let there be light" and how does creation respond? There was light so that "...God saw the light, that it was good..." (Genesis 1:4 KJV)

>>> Continue to part 2 <<<

 

.