Oil. Food. Gold. Silver. Jobs. Money. All things that are important to us, all more expensive than before.
Overpopulation. War. Earthquakes. Oil "spills." Tsunamis. Droughts. Food shortages. Lots of them. More than ever before.
I thought this brave new world of the future back when I was a kid was gonna be real cool! But it has turned out to be more like a bad dream getting worse every day.
I realize that this is a world based on lack. You lack another layer in a snowstorm. You lack coolness in a heatwave. You lack love and feel lonely. You lack money and can't make the rent on the 1st. You lack a job but you want to work. You are rich, but you lack love you can't have. You employ 10,000 people but you lack the family you dreamed of.
This world, our universe, is based on lack, and death. What here doesn't die? Most things here can't survive long without something else, plant or animal, or lately Earth itelf, dying.
I for one have chosen the opposite way of thinking to everything that tries to grab my attention here in the world. I choose every day to forgive everything I see, good or bad. Gaddafi. Netanyahu. Bernanke. Obama. Clinton. Either of them. Lieberman. Bachmann. Blair. I even go back in time, as from what I study a memory is just as real as a "current" observation. King George. Hitler. Mussolini. Attila the Hun. Vlad the Impaler. You can't affect me, even if you did torture and kill most of my relatives a thousand years ago. Because I forgive you for everything you have ever done. You were just mistaken as to what you were and where you were. I don't want to make that same error, so I will just go on forgiving everything, the spilled milk, the pretty sunrise, the chirping bird, the cop, the priest. All forgiven. And at the same time I am forgiving myself. It feels good.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Thoughts on Time
I am always looking for more knowledge when it comes to the subject of time. Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now emphasizes that past and present and time itself are mere illusions which need to be dropped in deference to the present eternal moment called "Now." I have practiced this and I agree that the less time spent thinking about the past or future, the better one feels, as far as the more peace one feels.
Then there is a book by a guy with a very long name called Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. I explored this book about 20 years ago, it was a fascinating read. Basically it talks about “optimal experience” being those times where time disappears and you are just “in the zone” so to speak. When playing music perhaps, or when involved in a detailed task of some sort. This idea is paralleled by Tolle when he recommends using “clock time” for tasks needed in this world, but not to let your mind drift into the substrata of “psychological time,” basically identifying with a false self that has no identity without reference to the past. I have found these ideas helpful in quickly gaining peace in the middle of a busy day simply by trying to forget time and get into the “flow” of whatever I am doing in the present moment.
Imagine my pleasure when, while listening to my A Course in Miracles audiobook, this little gem popped up during a discussion entitled Heralds of Eternity:
“Why should it take so many holy instants to let this be accomplished, when one would do? There is but one. The little breath of eternity that runs through time like golden light is all the same; nothing before it, nothing afterwards. You look upon each holy instant as a different point in time. It never changes. All that it ever held or will ever hold is here right now. The past takes nothing from it, and the future will add no more. Here, then, is everything.”
I believe if we just let that thought sink in and just feel that same constant never-changing eternal moment that we are in right now, everything will flow and we can forget the past completely, which seems to be the real key to peace.
Then there is a book by a guy with a very long name called Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. I explored this book about 20 years ago, it was a fascinating read. Basically it talks about “optimal experience” being those times where time disappears and you are just “in the zone” so to speak. When playing music perhaps, or when involved in a detailed task of some sort. This idea is paralleled by Tolle when he recommends using “clock time” for tasks needed in this world, but not to let your mind drift into the substrata of “psychological time,” basically identifying with a false self that has no identity without reference to the past. I have found these ideas helpful in quickly gaining peace in the middle of a busy day simply by trying to forget time and get into the “flow” of whatever I am doing in the present moment.
Imagine my pleasure when, while listening to my A Course in Miracles audiobook, this little gem popped up during a discussion entitled Heralds of Eternity:
“Why should it take so many holy instants to let this be accomplished, when one would do? There is but one. The little breath of eternity that runs through time like golden light is all the same; nothing before it, nothing afterwards. You look upon each holy instant as a different point in time. It never changes. All that it ever held or will ever hold is here right now. The past takes nothing from it, and the future will add no more. Here, then, is everything.”
I believe if we just let that thought sink in and just feel that same constant never-changing eternal moment that we are in right now, everything will flow and we can forget the past completely, which seems to be the real key to peace.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
It is starting to sink in!
Three years. Thirty-six months. 1,085 days. 156 Sundays. That is approximately how long I have been reading, studying, listening, memorizing, repeating, writing, absorbing. Everything I can get my hands on. Scores of books. Big tubs full of audiobooks. I never thought I would be someone who devours physics books. Or stays up til 1 on a weeknight reading the "Nag Hamadi Scriptures." But here I am. There I am, browsing another bookstore's "New Age", "Religion" and "Science" sections. Craving ideas. Knowledge. Putting together ideas from here and there and mixing them like a chef to see if the parts are compatible. To find out if the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts. Guess what? It is! The more I read, the more I listen, the more I learn, the tighter the pieces fit together and the more confidence I gain that my theories that came to me three years ago are onto something useful and important to me. And if they are useful and important to me, I suspect they could be useful and important to a lot of people. These days every day I am noticing that the practices I have been preaching are coming to me naturally much more often, and my days are going better day to day. Every bit of information I add to the grey matter helps focus my purpose to a sharper point in front of my vision. I feel my purpose gelling. My calling getting within reach. It feels good to wake up with a purpose. I encourage you to do what you feel you are called to do. Anything else is just shorting yourself.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
What did Dr Hew really do?
I have been immersed lately in a 56-cd set of the audiobook of "A Course in Miracles." I listen to one cd at a time, over and over for about a week or so, back and forth on my way to work on my car's cd player. I don't switch the cd to the next one until I understand it 99% completely, as I never expect 100% of anything! I am finding out that I am an "audio" learner. I had read most of the ACIM text, but it had never sunk in like it is now through these cd's. What I find over and over is that all my avenues of study and learning on my quest for peace meet like four or five freeways all sharing the same interchange.
Remember the ho'oponopono man Dr Hew Len who cured and rendered unnecessary an entire hospital ward for the criminally insane in Hawaii? Well according to ACIM it appears we have another piece of the jigsaw fitted....it is possible that the good miracle worker was merely taking himself into what the course calls "The Holy Instant" over and over day after day and week after week. As the course teaches, the entire universe is healed when we simply stop thinking of the past or future and surrender our mind to the holy spirit and let it be guided on autopilot that way.
Whenever I have doubt or any form of fear that this world is so eager and happy to give, I simply do what Dr Hew did, and I say "I love you" over and over to the divine in all of us, and everything starts going very well. I may just cure this runaway insane economy while I work on taxes, who knows? Want to help me?
Remember the ho'oponopono man Dr Hew Len who cured and rendered unnecessary an entire hospital ward for the criminally insane in Hawaii? Well according to ACIM it appears we have another piece of the jigsaw fitted....it is possible that the good miracle worker was merely taking himself into what the course calls "The Holy Instant" over and over day after day and week after week. As the course teaches, the entire universe is healed when we simply stop thinking of the past or future and surrender our mind to the holy spirit and let it be guided on autopilot that way.
Whenever I have doubt or any form of fear that this world is so eager and happy to give, I simply do what Dr Hew did, and I say "I love you" over and over to the divine in all of us, and everything starts going very well. I may just cure this runaway insane economy while I work on taxes, who knows? Want to help me?
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Problems Part III as promised!
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Time flies! It has been a long time since I wrote about problem-solving methods. Heck, it's been a long time since I wrote about anything! I need to quit my day job!
My third problem-solving technique is really not even a technique per se. Let me explain.
A Course in Miracles is the ultimate self-help course. In it one will find, besides the text and a section called the "Manual for Teachers," a workbook filled with 365 lessons, one for each day of the year. One of those lessons, number 79, begins:
"A problem cannot be solved if you do not know what it is. Even if it is really solved already you will still have the problem, because you will not recognize that it has been solved. This is the situation of the world."
It continues proclaiming that there is only ever ONE problem, "Separation." Separation in the course simply means that we think we have separated from our Creator. When examined, the idea that anything or anyone could ever be seperate from its creator is fairly hard to fathom.
So the Course simply states that your only problem is that you think you have seperated from God. And that in reality that never could have happened as it would be impossible to do so. So therefore you cannot have any problems at all. If you think you have problems these are merely "constructs" of an unreal world which in essence is like a giant dream lasting multiple lifetimes but going nowhere as it is all mind-stuff.
So I use this this way - whenever I feel a "problem" occuring or starting to surface, I simply repeat to myself silently in my head "there is only one problem, my seperation problem, and that problem never actually occured and could never occur." What happens when I remember to do this, and remembering is the hardest part, is that whatever is happening just gets solved because I am no longer dwelling on it and labeling it as a problem, I actually tell myself that I really don't care about this problem. This makes it less powerful of a force to ruin my day, and it almost becomes something I can chuckle about.
I dare you to try this today. I would love to hear whether it helps your feeling about your day and all the "problems" in it!
Time flies! It has been a long time since I wrote about problem-solving methods. Heck, it's been a long time since I wrote about anything! I need to quit my day job!
My third problem-solving technique is really not even a technique per se. Let me explain.
A Course in Miracles is the ultimate self-help course. In it one will find, besides the text and a section called the "Manual for Teachers," a workbook filled with 365 lessons, one for each day of the year. One of those lessons, number 79, begins:
"A problem cannot be solved if you do not know what it is. Even if it is really solved already you will still have the problem, because you will not recognize that it has been solved. This is the situation of the world."
It continues proclaiming that there is only ever ONE problem, "Separation." Separation in the course simply means that we think we have separated from our Creator. When examined, the idea that anything or anyone could ever be seperate from its creator is fairly hard to fathom.
So the Course simply states that your only problem is that you think you have seperated from God. And that in reality that never could have happened as it would be impossible to do so. So therefore you cannot have any problems at all. If you think you have problems these are merely "constructs" of an unreal world which in essence is like a giant dream lasting multiple lifetimes but going nowhere as it is all mind-stuff.
So I use this this way - whenever I feel a "problem" occuring or starting to surface, I simply repeat to myself silently in my head "there is only one problem, my seperation problem, and that problem never actually occured and could never occur." What happens when I remember to do this, and remembering is the hardest part, is that whatever is happening just gets solved because I am no longer dwelling on it and labeling it as a problem, I actually tell myself that I really don't care about this problem. This makes it less powerful of a force to ruin my day, and it almost becomes something I can chuckle about.
I dare you to try this today. I would love to hear whether it helps your feeling about your day and all the "problems" in it!
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Problems, Schmoblems! (Part 2 of 3)
Well I trust you have been walking along the razor's edge for a few days! Here comes another idea for handling those pesky problems! This one is courtesy of Joe Vitale and Dr Hew Len, my favorite Hawaiian Ho'oponopono guy!
According to the book "Zero Limits," problems are simply memories replaying. They will dominate your mind and hence your life as long as you let those old gramophones keep playing over and over.
Ho'oponopono simply asks you to replace those memories replaying with the phrases "I Love You, I'm Sorry, Please Forgive Me, and Thank You." This is telling the devine which is inside us all that you are grateful that He is there, you have "caught" the program that brought a "problem" into your awareness (this could be overeating, being out of money, your child's tantrums, an allergy or disease, or world peace and bad government, or anything) and you don't know how you caught it, but you are sorry this problem is in your awareness, you are asking the divine to forgive this situation, and you show gratitude for the help which the divine always offers.
This mental ritual will change your life. But you must try it. Which reminds me of the guy who said, "Lord, PLEASE let me win the lottery," and a big voice from heaven says "But Frank, you've gotta buy a ticket!" In other words, reading and studying these methods is all well and good, but I dare you to really try this for a whole day, whenever you remember to do it, and I bet you will notice how good of a day you have, and I bet some weird "coincidences" will occur! When you receive an unexpected check, or somebody enters your life at just the right time, you can thank divine providence....over and over and over in your head!
Stay tuned for Part 3!
According to the book "Zero Limits," problems are simply memories replaying. They will dominate your mind and hence your life as long as you let those old gramophones keep playing over and over.
Ho'oponopono simply asks you to replace those memories replaying with the phrases "I Love You, I'm Sorry, Please Forgive Me, and Thank You." This is telling the devine which is inside us all that you are grateful that He is there, you have "caught" the program that brought a "problem" into your awareness (this could be overeating, being out of money, your child's tantrums, an allergy or disease, or world peace and bad government, or anything) and you don't know how you caught it, but you are sorry this problem is in your awareness, you are asking the divine to forgive this situation, and you show gratitude for the help which the divine always offers.
This mental ritual will change your life. But you must try it. Which reminds me of the guy who said, "Lord, PLEASE let me win the lottery," and a big voice from heaven says "But Frank, you've gotta buy a ticket!" In other words, reading and studying these methods is all well and good, but I dare you to really try this for a whole day, whenever you remember to do it, and I bet you will notice how good of a day you have, and I bet some weird "coincidences" will occur! When you receive an unexpected check, or somebody enters your life at just the right time, you can thank divine providence....over and over and over in your head!
Stay tuned for Part 3!
Saturday, February 5, 2011
"You've Got Your Problems, I've Got Mi-ine!" Part 1 of 3
Remember that old tune? I paraphrased a bit, but I think it is familiar. Well I have been working on "problems" a lot the past few months. But I don't mean in the sense that I have problems, and I am working on them. I mean I am working on the whole grand theory of the world of problems in general. And wouldn't you know it.....my three favorite books all have a method of "problem-solving" that works! Put all three together and "Voila" your day just got 100% better, and you didn't have to rely on anyone else or anything else happening to make it work.
First of the three is Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now" solution. In a nutshell, it is simply this: ask yourself, "What problem do I have RIGHT NOW? Not in ten seconds, not in ten minutes, not next tax season, but RIGHT NOW!" If you have reached the point, after practicing, where you can "be present" in the present moment, you will see that it is true, there are no problems right now. But here is where the magic happens....picture yourself as the zen master who according to Tolle "walks along the razor's edge of the eternal now." Guess what? Try it and see. You can walk along that edge and you will be problem-free guaranteed....UNTIL the moment when your conciousness slips back below the level you were at on the razor's edge of now. When you slip down a notch, your problems will all be there waiting for you in the basement of conciousness, or the time-driven temporal world we normally inhabit. Please try this and see if I am right, it can't hurt, it's free! Stay tuned for Part Two of this three-part series!
First of the three is Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now" solution. In a nutshell, it is simply this: ask yourself, "What problem do I have RIGHT NOW? Not in ten seconds, not in ten minutes, not next tax season, but RIGHT NOW!" If you have reached the point, after practicing, where you can "be present" in the present moment, you will see that it is true, there are no problems right now. But here is where the magic happens....picture yourself as the zen master who according to Tolle "walks along the razor's edge of the eternal now." Guess what? Try it and see. You can walk along that edge and you will be problem-free guaranteed....UNTIL the moment when your conciousness slips back below the level you were at on the razor's edge of now. When you slip down a notch, your problems will all be there waiting for you in the basement of conciousness, or the time-driven temporal world we normally inhabit. Please try this and see if I am right, it can't hurt, it's free! Stay tuned for Part Two of this three-part series!
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