When one is free, everything comes: love, passion, forgiveness, joy. Because with freedom everything is allowed, everything is possible. You deny yourself nothing. This is why it is so highly sought after at the core of our very being.
July 21, 2008
Rule #1: You are the love you’re searching for.
Rule #2: You already have enough money.
Rule #3: A clear, sound mind will bring you loads of peace.
Rule #4: Follow your path, do what you love.
Rule #5: Everything else is gravy.
July 20, 2008
I have tried to stop the law of cause and effect and I tell you it is not possible. Have kept myself locked up in a dark room for days at a time, have sat atop cragged mountains without moving or making a sound.
Yes I have become more conscious. We call this awareness. I have become aware of the moment my breath leaves the body, how it travels outwards changing the world.
I have been privy to the fresh smells of pine needles as they enter my nostrils, felt their pleasant essence meld with my body.
I have watched the river flow and become lost in the stillness I felt within myself.
I have severed all relationships to not cause any more trouble, to avoid the loss of love and heartache at all costs.
Things have indeed changed. I now notice with awe and wonder the intricacy of the chamomile flower floating in my tea.
I have found the tears in your eyes before they come, before your sadness and frustration washes over me.
I have spent no money and become poor. I have spent all my money and become rich.
And through all these things karma was still there. The law of cause and effect imbued in all things, in my body, my reactions, my judgments of my reactions, my thoughts and feelings.
Everything changes, everything is affected, every thought leads to an action, every reaction leads to a consequence.
And in the end I realize we are bound by consequence, we are bound by cause and effect.
That karma can not be changed at the level of form because even as you try to change something, that in itself is a change creating another ripple.
And now I see that we are not trying to stop the law of cause and effect. We are not trying to stop time.
We are trying to not react to it, but how do you not react when not reacting is still a reaction in itself?
You accept everything as being beautiful, you accept all thoughts as being powerful. You accept all aspects of yourself, your mind and your body as being wonderful.
And when you accept who you are without judging, who you are not. You become the world.
You are not longer affected by the law of cause and effect because you are accepting of all it’s aspects.
You become the ocean and you leave the sea.
You accept… that You Are Love.
July 10, 2008
All forms of meditation rely on mystic elements in the fact that a simple thought can create increased self-awareness and experiencing within the human body is a remarkable human ability.
However in Integrative Meditation Training (IMT) (similarly in MBSR and Zen Meditation) we don’t add in additional beliefs or religious philosophy to increase personal validation or bring additional meaning to the technique as a way to stabilize an uncertain mind.
Though this does happen naturally as a consequence of the processing of new information, our goal is not to add in any more than is required.
The fact that we are alive, are perceiving and moving through all these life experiences is already mystical. We just take it for granted. We are trying to re-realize how amazing being here actually is.
There is often no need to spoil the soup by adding in unnecessary flavoring (e.g. additional beliefs). Though as we are all individuals and have personal preferences we may often choose to add in different spices or hot sauces (e.g., religion, Buddhism, atheism, humanism) in order to have a different personal experience.
When additions to the soup are done with awareness (conscious choice) they are based on personal truth and curiosity, when they are done unconsciously they are based on fear, past conditioning and the desire to stabilize a belief system experiencing uncertainty.
The first approach is preferable but we all of course must move through uncertainty in order to become certain.
March 26, 2008
The mind is a tricky thing. Due to past learnings and conditionings either recent (the last TV commercial you saw) or ancient (childhood history or past lives) our mind adds meaning to almost every event that occurs. We unconsciously add personal meaning to events as a way to defend our personal world view and judge how successful we are in life.
The meaning we create brings significance to some events and discards others. So for example the ending of a relationship is more meaningful than drinking a cup of coffee that turns out to be cold. If I considered a cold coffee as being as important as the ending of a relationship then it would indeed be difficult for me to know how to deal with daily life situations.
However from the Truth Seeker perspective meaning attribution is always limiting. The reason for this is that the mind is often unnecessarily adding meaning to events as a way to defend its own personal world view and NOT as a way to help us find true peace.
Meaning attribution causes us to judge events as being either good or bad. We then try to avoid bad events and have only good ones. Unfortunately not only is this impossible but it would also be detrimental to spiritual growth as suffering through bad events often motivates us to grow and reach for true happiness.
So as a Truth Seeker, we strive for getting to the point of ‘no mind’, ‘beginner mind’ or ‘Zen mind’. What we are doing is developing the ability to stop the mind from applying meaning and thus stop our incessant judging of personal life events.
In the end, as you become more clear you no longer apply meaning to events. You no longer judge events as being either good or bad in order to defend the ego. Events just are.
This then allows one to disengage the mind and move through life events with full openness and little defensiveness. We get the mind ‘out of the way’ so spontaneous freedom can occur.
We then live life more naturally. This is known as the ‘Way of Tao’. We become more present, not less, and become better able to make decisions based on what brings us real happiness and not solely based on what our mind ‘thinks’ should be happening given our current life situation.
Our first step is seeing this as a possible goal. The second step is simply to become more aware of when we inadvertently judge situations as being either good or bad. Just catching that from time to time, is a good start.
August 13, 2007
Personal beliefs change with life experience, ultimate truth does not. A truth seeker then does not seek to confirm pre-existing beliefs of what he or she has previously been taught. He or she looks to remove the beliefs that prevent truth from being seen.
The path of the truth seeker then is to experience personally and not just believe conceptually; to discover the truth because it has been personally experienced not just previously explained.
To believe is to not know. Your mind constructs a belief because you are yet unsure. You ‘think’ or ‘hope’ it may be true but you are yet uncertain.
Beliefs (passed on to us collectively and created based on our own personal experiences) are only our initial template, giving us a path to move from someplace old to someplace new and more vibrant.
The goal then is not to debate and defend our belief system (though many people do this unconsciously). The goal is to move beyond our own personal beliefs towards our own personal truth and ultimate truth. Ultimate truth is truth that is the same for all sentient beings (e.g., we all seek love and compassion.)
These truths can only be realized not conceptualized. And realization only comes with experience and personal reflection. Then you know. You no longer believe. You just know.
