Yoga Books Galore

Hey there - have just added some book reviews on some of the fantastic yoga books I've been reading - you can read them on my Recommended Reading page here.

The Key to Quiet Mind Meditation

OK, there are many keys, but one of the keys to being able to keep your mind quiet is firstly to have your mind focus on one particular thing.  Like your mind, a mantra, your body, God, etc.  That bit is probably obvious.

But in order to keep your mind focused on that one particular thing, and not have it wander off in to unrelated topics, you also need to have a portion of your mind watching for just that.  You need to have a portion of your mind watching to make sure the rest of your mind stays focused on its chosen subject.  In this way, as soon as your mind begins to wonder, that part of your mind will notice, and you can bring your awareness back to what it is focusing on.

Stealing and Digital Media

I don't know if this is the right place to say this, but it seems to me that once you convert your artistic expression into a digital format, you lose your power over it.

That is, once your music or book or whatever goes digital, the power over that work moves from those who have created it to those who are experiencing it.  The power moves from the performer to each member of the audience.  Basically, your audience then decides whether to pay for the service or not.

It seems to me that the problem with stealing music, movies, etc is that this shift in power has not been recognised.  Everything is continuing to function as if the power still lies within the big publishing houses, when in fact, it has been transferred to all those who wish to listen to the music, and watch the movies.

Therefore, any solution to the stealing business has to take that shift of power into account.

What does it mean to be Enlightened?

Man, I wish I REALLY knew the answer to this question.  As of this point in time, I have not yet realised my true self, so I can only conjecture as to what it truly is to be enlightened.  But as far as I can tell...

The first stage seems to involve a sort of "duality" of consciousness.  You are aware of yourself as you are also aware of doing whatever you are doing.  That is, your normal state of consciousness is accompanied by an awareness of that state of consciousness (as described by Mouravieff, Gurdjieff and others).

The second stage seems to come when your sense of identity resides with this dual portion of your consciousness, or with what many spiritual traditions call "The Witness."  At this point, you simply witness your body going about its business, seemingly of its own volition.  It appears that your conscious will no longer engages your physical body and its actions, and that the things your body does, simply "happen" (as described by Satchidananda, Hawkins, and others).

The third and what I will term "final" stage seems to follow on from the second in that what you are consciously aware of expands from your physical body into directly experiencing the Unity that Truly Is.  From this point, you are experiencing (the bliss of) Unity / Reality.  You are still aware of your physical body, but it takes up a fraction of your total awareness, with most of your Real Self experiencing the indescribable All.  Your sense of ownership recedes from "my body" to "this body" (the only one I have found describing this fascinating state so far is Nisargadatta, although there are a few unread books on my bookshelf that promise to provide other points of view on this state.)

What is it to be "Spiritual?"

It has come to my attention recently that a kick in the nuts can be as spiritually insightful as any profound weekend workshop.

New workshop schedule to follow...

The Hand of Enlightenment

Lets imagine that in a hookey spiritual analogy, our real-selves - who we truly are - are our physical bodies.  And yet we, as our ego's / personalities, only think ourselves as a hand.

As a hand, things are pretty good.  We can move around a bit, move our hands, flex our fingers.  Some hands even find that with training, they can do super-hand feats of strength - by using all of their fingers, they can claw their way around and move much more than other ordinary hands.  But they are still hands.

Then, one hand, after meditating and doing lots of finger stretches, comes to realise that he is not just a hand - he is an arm as well!  This realisation then brings about so much more freedom, that to the hand and all of the hands friends, it is incredible.  Not only can he now move vast distances with ease, he can also leap into the air and stay suspended indefinitely.

All the other hands marvel, for surely this hand is miraculous and has reached enlightenment. But then, one day, the "enlightened" hand meets another enlightened hand.  But this new hand has realised that it is not just an arm, but it is really the whole body.

Gently, the new hand tells the "enlightened" hand that he is not fully enlightened, and has just come one step along the path of true enlightenment.

The "enlightened" hand considers what he has been told before asking the new hand what is it like to be fully enlightened.

The new hand thinks about the freedom and range of experiences that comes from knowing you are a whole body compared to thinking you are a hand and replies "It's kind of hard to explain..."

All things Yoga

One of the most fascinating areas I have started to look into recently is yoga.  Not necessarily the stretching / postures / asanas (although I can now touch my toes), but more on the yogic approach to enlightenment.

Out of the all the approaches to enlightenment I have dabbled in - new age ascension, hermetic, kabalistic, sufism, Eastern European, etc, this approach seems to have the clearest delineation of what you need to do to realise that you are already all you want to be.

I will be putting up some recommended reading in a new "yoga" section on my recommended reading page (one of many needed updates - see below), but for now, if this resonates, check out "The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali" by Sri Swami Satchidananda.  Don't let the length of his name or beard put you off - this has to be one of the most beautiful books I have ever read.

You can order it through our shop Wonders of the World, or through Amazon.com

Long time no blog...

Hey, for those of you who have noticed, I haven't made many updates recently.  Been going through lots of "shifts" and changes to my perspectives on workshops and my work in general. 

I have decided that I need to revamp my website to reflect said inner changes, but as that is a whole lot of work and I haven't got past conceptualizing it yet, I thought changing the website as it is would be best for now.

Anyhoo, am back and looking forward to sharing some of the stuff I have come across in my journey recently.

Masculine and Feminine Energy and Affirmations

"If we have too much masculine energy, we become too stubborn and brittle; we cannot deal with the ebb and flow of the unpredictable nature of life (which is the ultimate manifestation of feminine energy).  If we have too much feminine energy, we are pushed and pulled from one direction to another, always starting, never completing; our life becomes lost in the experience at the cost of progress. 

"It is the same with affirmations; with too much masculine based affirmations, we can become ruled by our ego, caught up in the achievement of one goal after another.  If we have too much feminine energy in our affirmations we can end up embracing our spiritual flow to the detriment of our material comforts.  In this, as in all things, balance seems to be the answer. 

"And where that balance specifically lies for each one of us, is up to us to discover."

...from the upcoming book "Two Minute Meditations"

Moving from One Teaching to Another

A student is like an open hand, a teaching like a feather that lands in their palm.  If the student closes their fist, hanging on to the teaching as if it held all the answers to their life's problems, then they will be unable to detect when it is time for the feather to alight again and for another feather to take its place.

...from Ron Holt, through a great friend.

To Ponder...

He who says he is enlightened is probably not enlightened...

One person alone can change nothing.  And yet one person can change everything.

Healing and The Spiritual Path

The more I read about various spiritual paths that describe the various states of a more awakened mind in different ways, the more I am convinced that applying commonly available alternative healing modalities that release emotion and change beliefs are the key in terms of "how to" get to these states.  For example;

Taking the wisdom and experience of your past and leaving the emotion behind (Robert Monroe) - emotional release work.*

Stopping wasting energy with petty tyrants and retaining your impeccability (Carlos Castaneda) - emotional release work, changing beliefs*.

Essentially believing in nothing (Hermetic Alchemical tradition) - changing beliefs*.

Responding instead of reacting to your environment and the people within it - emotional release and belief work* on "issues."

Escaping from the bondage of limited social programming (conspiracy theorists) - changing beliefs*

Which basically boils down to this - the same alternative tools that you can use to heal yourself of your trauma's can be used, in much the same way, to assist you on your path of self-realisation.

[* - whenever you work on beliefs, you work on emotions, so the two really go hand in hand - it is the focus, as always, that matters.]

What I Like Most About Christmas

The thing I like most about Christmas is that complete strangers feel comfortable being friendly with each other.

Trinity - And the Power of Three

Father        Mother        Child
Masculine   Feminine     Neutral
Identity      Love          Void
Active        Passive       Neutralizing

What's the Definition of an Honest Politician?

The one that comes up with plausible reasons as to why they can't fulfill their election promises...

But Seriously...

If you buy the conspiracy theory that the government is not really running the place, but is merely the front for the people that are, then it makes you wonder about the whole reputation about all politicians being corrupt.

Perhaps it is really that it is only those people with a shady past or a proclivity to corrupt behavior that are ALLOWED to become a politician / rise to a position of power.  For then those that truly run the place will always have something over them, should they need the politician to do their bidding / encounter any resistance to doing thier bidding.

Our Focus

Much of our energies are focused on survival, and the fear that we will not be able to sustain it; intimacy, and the fear that we will not be able to achieve it; and the exertion of our conscious will, and the fear that we will not be able to do so.

Discernment - Being Creative

A lot of reading I have done talks about the importance of having discernment with what you are reading, and especially with information obtained from the "other side" - within your own meditations or somebody else's.  But how do you develop discernment?

One way is to get creative with what you are being told.  Ask yourself questions such as what else could this mean?  With any facts that you are presented with, what else could they be supporting?  What other theories or versions of reality could they be pointing to?

For example, lets say we see some footage on the news that we are told are pictures from where a small middle eastern country has begun attacking a US base.  Using your discernment, you might think to yourself that firstly, what you are being told could be true.  Then you might think to yourself, is it probable that a small middle eastern country would attack one of the largest military powers in the world?  Perhaps the "small middle eastern country" is not so defenceless - perhaps it is.  You also might wonder if the footage is showing exactly the opposite of what you are being told it is about.  You may also consider that this footage could have perhaps been taken many months or years ago for a completely different conflict.  You may even want to consider the possibility that the conflict you are being told about is not even happening - after all it is half way around the world, and who are we to know?

So then after considering all of these "creative" possibilities about what  could really be happening, you either draw your own conclusions, or perhaps more ideally, leave the topic open until you receive more "facts" or "evidence" that give you more clues as to what is or is not happening.

Other questions that are good to play with include "who does this benefit?" and "what is the effect on me, if I believe this?"

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Love Of God

As you may know, I recently received guidance to include "Loving God" as part of my path of awakening (as described in Wake Up).

But what does "Loving God" mean?

We can start examining this by assuming that God is in everything, everywhere.  The simplest explanation for this is that if God (or The Divine, or Great Spirit, or Source, etc) was all there was to begin with, and then God created everything, then everything must be made of God.  Trite perhaps, but convincing enough.

So that must mean that to Love God is to love everything.  As God.  And not just the essence of everything, but all aspects of everything.  Its not like God is the chewy center hidden amongst everything, God is also everything between that "essence" and the crusty exterior we see around us.

So therefore, God is everything that is physically around us and energetically around us.  In terms of dimensions or dimensionality, as God exists on all dimensions, to Love God is also to love each inter-dimensional aspect of everything around us as well.

Then, if you add in the popular theory in some circles that God is Love, and that therefore experiencing love is the closest we get to experiencing God, then Loving God takes on another whole dimension.

So for me, loving God is simply recognising God - recognising the God in everything, everywhere, at every-time. So the exercise in loving God then becomes recognising the Unity throughout all.  Perhaps initially from the heart, but ultimately having that love recognition of God from all my chakras, all of my being. 

PS - You know, I never really knew what BLOG stood for, or what it really means - but now I have a cutesy acronym for it: Becoming the Love Of God.

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We often learn the most from that which we think we have the least to learn from.

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Do We Have "Negative" Guides?

Given that there is no real positive or negative - that everything is simply the unfoldment of Divine Will, do we have what could be experienced as "negative" guides?

I am sure we have all had a challenging (i.e. "negative") experience that, while not experienced as "great" at the time, was, on reflection, incredibly valuable in terms of life lessons learned, the experiences it gave us, and the direction that those experiences led us.

Therefore, if this experience was the only way to learn those lessons, then were we guided to have that "negative" experience, even though we would not have  chosen to have it if we knew the consequences of that choice ahead of time?

Or are we guided to learn the lessons from that "negative" experience initially in other more "positive" ways, that we do not act on, so that in the end the only option we have left for us to gain this valuable life experience through the "negative" challenging experience?

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How is Knowledge Power?

I recently came across an idea repeatedly in the Laura Knight Jadczyk books that talk about how Knowledge is Power.

And I thought to myself, how can this be so?  Even though they gave some explanation in the books, I was not satisfied with their explanation.

After some time I received the following answer;

We are all aware, to varying degrees about the power of intention. And that the more specific you are in your intention, the more powerful your intention becomes.

Well, let us say that you had a desire, an intention to wake up, to become enlightened.  But, as you only had a vague idea of what it was like to be awakened, and only a vague idea of what it is that you are awakening from, your intention is, at best, vague.

But let us say that through the gaining of knowledge, you gained a much clearer idea of what it is like to be awakened, and further from what you would be awakening from.  Then, from that state of knowledge, that very same intention of waking up, being much more specific, becomes much more powerful.

Thus Knowledge is Power.

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Focusing on What You Want vs Accepting Things as They Are

I had an interesting discussion with my fiancé about reconciling two apparently different schools of thought:  One that has you focus on what you want in your life, and the other that has you accept your life as it is.

The first path is the masculine path.  This path asks you to focus your will or intention on making changes in your life so that your life is as you wish it to be.

The second path is feminine; it asks you to find the place within where you recognise that all is perfect just as it is, and therefore to be happy with what life has to offer you.

The danger of the first path is to be caught up in your manifestations as the end result, as opposed to a means to an end.  To be caught up in materialism.

The danger of the second path is to accept the unacceptable; to step into victim consciousness and become too passive in the face of obstacles that we encounter in life.

In truth, we are always focusing on what we want in our life, whether we consciously acknowledge it or not.  Thus, our lives are a constant reflection of what we believe - both good and bad.

Thus the second feminine path is ultimately one of healing; if you do not like what life has to offer you, then heal the part of you within that is asking for that reflection.

The first masculine path is therefore one of power - how you can influence the world around you.

And as always the path I find to be most ideal is one of balance:  focus on what you want consciously, while healing those parts that you do not want.

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Rituals

Most if not all actions that comprise rituals originated as a spontaneous expression of specific feelings, emotions and intentions.  In truth, any number of outward expressions or actions could and did express these inner experiences.

Some of the rituals we see today are simply repetitions of one set of these outward movements and actions, which are by themselves next to meaningless and devoid of any original power.

In order to connect to the power of ritual - of any ritual - you need to be able to connect to the inner feelings, emotions and intentions that formed the original ritual.  Then find your own authentic outward expression from your inner world.  This will then open the power of the ritual to you.

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Thoughts for the Day

Surrender to naught but God.

Blessed is the man who knows not the truth, but searches. 
Cursed is he who, upon finding the truth, turns away.

Better to know that one is ignorant, than to believe in a lie.

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Channels, Other Sources of Information, and Discernment

No one person or being, physical or otherwise, is ever going to be able to provide you with the whole truth.  That is, any information gained cannot be relied upon to be 100% accurate, 100% of the time.

Any information that is conveyed to you, whether it be from a book, through a channelled source or research still has to pass through at least two sets of human filters: theirs and yours.  And these filters are made up of all the unresolved / unhealed issues, fears and insecurities of the source as well as your own.

Even if a channeller were completely aware of their issues, and was consistently working on clearing them, and adjusting the information that was coming through so it could be as clear as possible, AND the source of the channelling was of an energy to be useful, they still would not provide all the answers, nor even necessarily be 100% accurate.

Why?  Because this is disempowering.  There is not just one source for information - and to suggest such a concept is limiting and at worst manipulative.  Truth, information, knowledge can and is found all around us, from many sources, as well as (and most importantly) within.

Besides, while we are still lost in physicality and essentially asleep, we all have subjective views of what the truth is - my truth may well be different from your truth.  Only when we awaken, will we have the ability to recognise an objective truth.  And while I would love to talk about what that objective truth is, unfortunately I am still asleep myself.

And thus the importance of discernment - rather than letting down your guard because you have apparently found a source of information that seems to be infallible - constantly question, constantly apply your discernment.

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Why Being Specific with our Intentions is SO Important

We are made up of many different parts (NLP), "I's" (Gurdjieff) or sub-personalities (Psych).  And each of these portions of ourselves wants different things.  Sometimes what they want is the same as what we "consciously" desire, at other times they are not.

And this is why we need to be specific in our intentions.  Any portion of us that has a different agenda to what we consciously desire can use any portion of our intention that is vague or open to different interpretations to "express" there opposition to our conscious desires.

So be specific, if you wish.  And nip them in the bud.

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Healing Facilitation and Making a Difference

The main difference between being a HEALER and being a Healing FACILITATOR (apologies, but italics don't seem to work on this), is that as a healing FACILITATOR, we recognise that we are facilitating a healing process within our clients, rather than DOING the healing ourselves.

In simple terms, this either means that we facilitate the bodies natural abilities to heal, or, more esoterically, we acknowledge that any person's healing is between them and God (or whatever term you want to use here, including Higher Self, etc), and we are merely facilitating that healing process - any healing energies involved pass through us, as healing facilitators, rather than from us.

But what does that really mean?  I know that the reason I wanted to get into healing work was because I thought of it as the most meaningful things I could do, and I wanted to "make a difference."  But do we, as healing FACILITATORS make a difference?  Do we change anything?  Is changing anything actually possible?

Putting aside the last question, it seems to me that the work of the facilitator falls loosely into one of two categories.  The first is where the client feels that they need something to discover what they need to do differently, make a decision, get clarity on some area or all of their life and they are unable to do this by themselves.  So they come to a healing facilitator to get the clarity to make that decision, take that action.

The second and much more common situation is where the client has already made the decision at some level of their being to release some baggage they no longer want holding them down, or to step into some new area in their life, whatever that new area may be.  In this case they come to a healing facilitator to facilitate the decision they have already made -whether consciously, subconsciously or otherwise; to help them actualise the decision that has been made, to make it real in their physical reality.

So this then, is the work of the healing facilitator; to assist with clarity and enable people to follow through on the decisions that have been made to step into a new energy, a different portion of their being. 

And, personally, I love being involved in this sort of work :)

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Question Everything...

Especially those beliefs and concepts you hold to be absolutely and incontrovertibly true.  Take nothing for granted, and assume even less.

We know of many things that may be true, but very little of what actually is.

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The Universal Laws:

There are many laws governing this universe, here are some of them as I have been able to fathom, with very much a partial understanding:

Law of Attraction
Perhaps best articulated by Esther Hicks and "The Secret" this law basically says that what you think about, and how you feel about those thoughts, determines what comes into your life.

Law of Free Will
Again, basically that we all have free will.  The true nature of this law can only begin to be understood when we realise that we are all multi-dimensional beings living in a multi-dimensional universe, and free will applies at all levels.

Law of Reflection
Just as our dreams are full of rich symbolism that can teach us much about ourselves, so to is this physical reality full of this same symbolism and hidden meaning, in every moment of our lives.

Law of Unity
We are all one.  At our essence we all reflect the same true "beingness".  One aspect of this law can be understood by knowing that whatever we do to another, we do to ourselves.

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Bertrand Russell:

I got this awesome quote from Laura Knight-Jadczyk's book series The Wave:

"Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth - more than death.  Thought is subversive, and revolutionary, destructive and terrible; thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless to the well-tried wisdom of the ages.  Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid...  Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world and the chief glory of man.

"But if thought is to become the possession of the many, and not the privilege of the few, we must have done with fear.  It is fear that hold men back - fear that their cherished beliefs should prove delusions, fear lest the institutions by which they live should prove harmful, fear lest they themselves prove less worthy to the respect than they have supposed themselves to be."

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Beware the Con Man

Do you know about the con man's tricks?

The con man says "Here, look at this, for this is true."  And you look, and you see that it is true, for you know it to be true.

Then the con man says, "And here, look at this, for this is also true." And you look, and it seems to be true, and sure enough you find out, if you do investigate, that it is true.

Then the con man says, "Well, they were both true, so look at this, for this is also true."  And you look, and all you can see is that this something new appears to be true.

But it is not.  It may be partially true, or it may be unverifiably untrue.  And this is why we need to be aware of the con man - they can appear at any time, under any guise - from car salesman to trusted guru to famous channel. 

And therefore we have another good reason to continue to broaden our awareness and remain connected with our own wisdom within.

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Fiction

Stories are a potentially far richer medium than facts.

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