The Amber of a Moment

Many invest in the belief that the world around us imprints on our mind and our thoughts. Cause and effect actually happen entirely the other way around. We create our lives with every thought we think, every minute, of every day. Like the rising sun, awareness of this process explains how our perceptions of our experiences of the event(s) are present in our lives.

Consider the following for a moment: What if “perception (yours and mine) equals projection (yours and mine)”? What would happen to your thinking in your world if you knew factually that what you see outside you is a reflection of an inner condition of your thinking? The maxim “thoughts are things” offers to us that what we think and focus on manifests in our lives. It’s the Universal Law of Attraction at work, specifically, we’ve invited the experience, although subconsciously, to see, receive and experience.

Amid the clamor and confusion of living, we have an infinite number of choices upon which we make all of our decisions. Humankind shares a mystifying feeling that many moments of our lives are scooped up by a hurricane of our thoughts and flung far and wide for the world to see. In truth they are... Individual and group consciousness or minds are the effect of thought, more precisely an evolution of thinking and not the world condition. Religions, politics, wars and yes even peace and harmony embrace like thought.

Our thoughts are like clouds and appear in many shapes and sizes. Pleasant thoughts drift lazily by like fair-weather cumulus. Sullen thoughts threaten, rumbling with thunder, and obscure opportunities and the possibilities for right or truthful thinking in the deluge of our negative downpour. Both are there one moment and gone the next, though the darker clouds often seem to persist longer. A Course in Miracles offers, “Seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. (T21-1:7)” These words counsel that our mind and cloud-like thought forms, are primary to each of us and are very different. In truth, the world, and what we choose to see in it, are the effect(s) of our thinking. If you believe that something outside of you causes what you think; ask who or what outside of you causes you to think? Who and where is the thinker if it’s not within you?

We all have fleeting glimpses of our journey where, if given the chance, we’d pluck that instant from the winds of time and hide them away forever. Consider that at the causal level, we’ve invited the experience to ourselves. Some are attached to a specific space in time and we can step through ‘Alice’s Looking Glass’ to visit them again and then they’re gone. Some are anchored with music, a person, a restaurant or a scene in nature. Our reality is, we see what we choose to see, through our physical eyes because of our related thoughts around them. If we chose to see the truth about the circumstance, most likely, we wouldn’t see what it is that we see.

Being open to this one uncomplicated truth would do more to change the dynamics of our world and humanity than everything else we can do. It contains the seeds for experiencing the peace, relaxation and freedom from worry that we all are tying to attain. The keys to less stress in our lives, forgiving ourselves and others also lie within the same idea.

How so? Consider the worlds around you if caused by your (our) thoughts, are also similar thoughts that are the source of blame and judgment we assign to it. This is like examining the mosquito trapped in amber of John Hammond’s (Richard Attenborough) cane from Jurassic Park, one need only change one thought in the “amber of the moment” about an event and take that one crucial step away from the cycle of blame and judgment. Why is that? If what I see outside of me is being caused by my own thoughts, then there is nothing to "blame" in the outside world; all that is needed is to correct my thinking to ‘right’ thinking. See the difference?

Opening the mind to ‘I can choose to forgive what I see because it is meaningless or having no purpose changes everything. The choice to condemn, judge or blame stems from thinking we see something that means something other than what we think. Most often it’s a thought disconnect and specifically, is totally meaningless and without any basis for condemnation. If our mind is the cause of what we see, how is it possible then to judge something? We’re left only with recognizing and accepting the truth, ‘I alone am responsible for what I see’ and then choose again.

Namaste

Jim

टीचर्स ऎंड Students

Teachers - Master teachers are like orchestra conductors blending their own music and the students to fulfill expectations of their life's music. They should be an example of the tradition of the practice they represent. They should also know enough of a range of teachings to fit the variety of students that come to them. Communicating openly and clearly the material, the expectations of learning, prompting the student to question and examine everything. They do this by helping one experience the freedom that honesty brings when allowing your old habits and fears to rise and to die or heal in an atmosphere that conveys love and is free of judgement. Sometimes they're passive, influencing and nudging the student's curiosity. It's done out of respect for the learning that is taking place. They know that to force learning is to betray the trust given by the recipient and also themselves. They understand that each student learns in a different way, uniquely, over a period of time. They pass on knowledge gained from experience without telling them what to think. They teach how to find wisdom, through use of the practice creating a sacred space awakening devotion and wisdom that permits consciousness to expand beyond it current state of awareness.

Natural or true teachers have an instinctive open and honest capacity to create a safe haven for the student's heart and spirit to open as it has longed to for probably lifetimes. Within these inherent gifts to create a special space for learning, they transmit a sense of love and friendship. They act with compassion yet are strong enough to not interfere with the natural progression, allowing the old parts of us to die and help the new ones give birth. Their greatest and simplest power is recognizing the atmosphere of their own joy being the eyes of example, without judging, only assisting with the student's unfolding and learning. They have a gift of bringing a student back to balance when the student feels that some of the learning is contradictory. They help one discover the joys of being a student and of discovering how to create by calling forth the student's own wisdom and strength. They assist the student to recognize what it's like to taste their own potential and true worth through developing the ability to reason.

Really gifted teachers make two or more ideas grow where only one grew before. They light fires within their students, stimulating them to discover the truth about themselves. They know intuitively that their students are often a source of learning and though they teach they must remain open to a life of learning as well. In the final analysis, teachers do not enlighten us. They can't mature for us, nor let go for us, because their job is to point out, inspire, touch and provide a sense of what is true. In the end the true purpose of a teacher is guide us to discover within ourselves the inherent freedom our real Self, that is free, independent and finds joy in all of life. They are mentors guiding our own freedom and under their instruction we have an example of what is possible. They possess the skill to teach us how to use this spiritual discipline and foster the patience within us so we can master it as well.

Students - As a student I've often wondered if sometimes the best way to figure out who you are is to get to that place where you don't have to be anything else. That said, as a student one must possess an unquenchable desire for self-discovery. Students learn over time, that this is the quest of their soul, to experience, create and understand. Through embracing the gift and capacity to think they come to know that this alone is responsible for growth as one evolves through the application of reason. In understanding that thought is cause they learn to create their world and experiences versus reacting to their environment. They must realize that as they make mistakes it is through this learning that they understand the process of creation. The student alone must light the spark of commitment in their lives that will last a lifetime. The teacher helps the student find the best fuel to feed that fire of commitment with expectation. Like a lit candle, they know a life full of learning out shines the base that it sits on. Combining sincere commitment to practice under a teacher's skillful guidance we use the peaks and valleys we encounter to assist us on our path. As a student we feel open enough to ask any question and see what unfolds over time with sincere practice.

A student must be excited at the prospects of learning new things, of new beginnings and closure of the old as understandings are attained and added to the self. They must embrace each new opportunity to learn and experience as a gift to grow, expand and evolve. They do this by tapping into the motivation to know the truth about themselves, about who they are, what they want and why they want it. It's through this process of learning, remembering and repeating the cycle of creation over and over that they evolve to become teachers. It's through the commitment, experience of years, and repeated learning that they can aspire to be a master teacher. Finally, where true learning occurs and wisdom follows from knowledge, both teacher and
student have entered into the act of creating together as they give to each other and themselves. They know and understand intuitively what it is to share and give for mutual benefit.


Namaste

Life's Purpose

What is life's purpose? Is meditation going off into a cave in the mountains? I know from personal experience that by incorporating it into your life you will allow yourself to access a more profound and reverent part of life. It's a part worthy of your involvement, expenditure of energy and time. You'll receive answers to your questions, such as why am I here? You'll awaken to who you are and what you are about, what you’re here to learn, do and create with this marvelous experience of being human.

What do you need to be happy? A better job, more money, more leisure time, bigger house, car, and material things? On the surface, these seem to be the most important things in our lives but they are also temporary. That's the problem with the physical stuff and possesions is that they don't and won't last.

Have you experienced periods of restlessness, very active sexually, frustration, highs & lows in your life? Do you know why? Many of us are like the epic tale of Rip Van Winkle waking up from a long sleep. You're waking up to embracing life and getting on with it. That's your soul's way of shaking you and getting you to experience new things so that you can learn and evolve.

Is life really and bitch and then you die? Most see life's problems from two viewpoints - suppress them or vent them. If we subvert them what happens? If we vent them what happens? What's left? Use the experiences to learn and grow with and not to react.

Solving problems requires compassion. Often that's why most of us can provide expert advice that we don't or won't use ourselves. Where does this advice come from, why don’t we listen to it? Do we believe it applies to others and not us? Or is it because we are not objective with ourselves or place enough belief in our Self to provide the correct answers. Perhaps it's the compassion we show others when they cry out for help that is also something that we must learn ourselves.

Placing problems at the center of our attention and concentration and meditating on them causes them to become "lighter". Then in this area we can become "enlightened" or "illuminated". Meditation doesn't make things disappear, it allows us to take control and transform them so that solutions can appear. These solutions were always there; we just weren't able to see them because of scattered attention.

Take the example of something that you fear say spiders or snakes, flying, or public speaking. There are two approaches 1) fight or flight or 2) learn from the experience. The latter is often the more difficult. Take for example cobra venom. One person may kill the snake, another capture it to put it on display or still another use the snake to make anti-venom.

What kind of attitude does this require? Using reason (attention, memory and imagination) instead of running away allows us to create a different outcome. In meditation this spirit (attitude) is fundamental.

Ask yourself whether your in the act of doing things or being? Which is more important? Take workaholics for example. What's at the center of their attitudes? Security, afraid of being alone, insecure, lack of love, wanting to be loved, some of each? I believe the problem is a lack of balance and a lack of harmony in their lives and especially their spiritual lives.

We are mental, emotional and spiritual beings; spiritual entities having a physical experience. We learn through our emotions and our physical experiences by applying reason to evolve or change and grow. If you take away the workaholics work, what's left? It's by recognizing and working with our weaknesses as well as our strengths we can develop more self-confidence and realize a quicker more balanced growth in the process.

By choosing to undertake learning in the areas we haven't previously done that well we can and will make the most rapid progress physically and spiritually. In the places where we struggle, strain or are vulnerable, (i.e. - love, compassion, getting along with a difficult person) we can find diamonds of growth potential. These places require admission of shortcomings because we're expressing the desire to learn more. To do this we must "BE HERE NOW". When we are vulnerable we find our areas of strength that we haven't tapped into. By using these new resources we discover a greater sense of what life and we are all about.

Meditation can make us face these personal poisons and create the anti-venom. It does require desire, willingness to change, persistence and the will power required to make it happen. When we are open and accept who we are, 1/3 of the challenge has been won (one - Me, myself and I).

You can find anti-venom in anger and fear if you choose to look within for them, for the value of justice and integrity. What happens when these are transformed? Similarly denial, resentment and procrastination serve to produce more of the same in our lives. "Thought is cause - and everything else is sub-cause". We become what we think about…

Recognition and acceptance of our limitations, working with and through them are powerful techniques for personal change and spiritual growth. Are you up to it? The seeds of our peace, contentment and enlightenment are inside each of us. We must plant these seeds in the fertile existence of our subconscious minds so they can bear fruit.

A student asked his teacher whether the butterfly he held in his hand was alive or dead. The teacher sensing the deception replied, "It's up to you - you decide." So it's up to you. You can read this, and think, hey there's a lot of truth here, then continue on your way. Alternatively, you can choose to do something extraordinary with the information - "apply it in your life." The saddest fact of all is that most won't.

So for those of you who do, here's an exercise: For the next week, every day, examine everything in life that comes your way as something that is here to help you change and grow physically, mentally and spiritually. Life isn't out to get you - it's here to help you.


Namaste


Jim

Nature's opus

Nature’s Opus

The van’s tires crunched along the dusty gravel road and slowly stopped announcing we’d arrived. Around the horseshoe bay, sunlight softly kissed the shimmering waters encrusting its surface with millions of sparkling faceted pinpoints twinkling and dancing on each ripple. I remember thinking, “What a privilege to experience and enjoy this day!” “How could anyone deny that there is a master architect, a structure, an intrinsic order in this universe”? Yet the crowning jewel of the day was still to come…

Like squadrons of fighters returning from a night mission, hugging the Bay of Fundy coastline, flying low across sapphire blue waters, suddenly appearing en masse in a cacophony of peeps and whirring of wings. In serpentine fashion, writhing, rising and falling, in flashes of silver, white and muted browns and grays, they moved as a single entity. Wheeling and turning they hurtled forward as though commanded by an invisible conductor in exquisite celestial symphony. It was a display of flying brilliance that even the most accomplished pilots can only dream of achieving.

Scanning the ocher rocky shoreline with binoculars, more Sanderlings magically materialized amidst the crowded confusion on the high tide line to rest and replenish for their marathon non-stop flight to South America. Estimated at 100 per square meter, there were easily 100,000 or more birds. “How do they find their way here to this same spot year after year”? “How do they navigate to the same feeding grounds and then onward to their winter home South America”? “How do they fly clustered together and not collide with each other”? With a brain no larger than a quarter of the size of a human thumb, they and succeeding generations of offspring accomplish this journey twice a year. “What consciousness lies behind this”? “Who orchestrates nature’s opus”? “Who is the composer writing these magnificent scores that we enjoy if we stop, watch and listen”?

Spending quiet time in nature, one becomes surely more aware of a natural intelligence veiled in the apparent chaos of our universe. Silently observing the rhythm and majesty of creation, we enjoy the “ah-ah” experience providing proof we are bound eternally with everyone and everything in it. Nature becomes euphoric when we awaken to her majesty and opens a door offering so much more. It opens naturally to us because it is our birth right; we are a part of it. Like a garden flower’s first bloom, quietly without fanfare, with clear definite purpose, a miracle unfolds before our eyes. We begin to glimpse what is possible within us as well. We share the same planet, molecules and atoms. The same intellect lies dormant around and within us; we are a part of that same universal fabric and intelligence.

Each of us is a tiny imperfect example of creation charged with the same prime directive – “Create”. It’s our respective duty to discover what our life’s purpose is and how to fulfill that very special reason we came here this lifetime to perform. Karma, that’s possible? Dharma - that’s certain! Further consider, it’s also why we chose to be here and who we are with this lifetime. By spending time each day in meditation we too can tap into this universal intelligence. Each of us is gifted with a set of unique abilities and skills that no-one else has. Developing them promises to re-focus our energies on what we are here to do and what is important for us to do with our lives. The answers are found only within the silent gaps between our thoughts during meditation. Who is the author of your opus, your life’s work? Who writes the musical score and directs the orchestra? Can you hear the music – your music?


Namaste

Jim

A Spiritual Deficit

A Spiritual Deficit

When viewed against the breadth and abyss of space, astronauts have offered that our planet resembles a blue marble. This incredible oasis we know as earth suspended in the void is our home. It is a living, breathing, thinking organism. It and we as a human species are experiencing an astonishing transformation, mutating before our very eyes. Some of the more graphic examples with humankind’s fingerprints on them are global warming and the ancillary consequences. Viewed from space we witness the devastation of our respiratory system, the decimation of the rain forests. The direct consequence is silting of the river deltas, choking and poisoning the marine habitats where life breeds, feeds and exists. A few short years ago, where lush jungle teeming with life stood, today there are expanses of the planet's skin cracked, sun-burnt, literally raped and destitute as a direct result of our heartless indifference. Beyond the soul’s comprehension is the distress, misery and suffering inflicted on our fellow humankind the product of thoughtless, senseless acts of violence and war in every country.

Sadly and more astounding are the invisible changes that we seem to ignore and stubbornly remain unconscious of. With the same inevitable consequences of the effects of the Chernobyl and Bhopal disasters, we’re becoming contaminated. We’re experiencing and ignore the abrasion and grinding down of our own Spirit, flirting with the unspeakable. With all the fury and devastation of Dean - a Category 5 hurricane, the carnage is numbing. We believe it when we see it - by then it’s far too late. Most of us are matter-of-factly living lives that are Spiritually bankrupt, what I know as “A Spiritual Deficit". We're not listening to what "Spirit" is telling us.

You and I become what we think about all day long. Everything that occurs on our world has thought as its antecedent. We are responsible for what we create and co-create in this world and we do so with our thoughts. If we think war - we see war; if we think peace - we see peace; if we think hate - we see hate; if we think love - we see love. Individually and collectively, we are either moving towards love and peace or away from it...

Thinking and focusing on “I want bigger and better” believing we never have enough of anything in our lives is a scarcity mentality which attracts more of the same. Each of us can think of moments in our lives when we were touched by the plight of another person and extended a thought and (perhaps) a hand in kindness. Each opportunity when we've done this, we've listened to our "Spirit" and added to our Spiritual surplus as it were. This is a very real notion. There is an absolute accurate accounting system in the Universe - we get back what we give. Focusing on the abundance you already have in your life and being truly grateful for everything you experience, attracts in kind. This thought perspective attracts more for everyone else as well. Why and how you may wonder? The Universe operates from the perspective of abundance not a deficit. If there's a deficit in our live, it's because we've attracted it there with our thinking.

To begin and replenish a Spiritual Deficit, one needs to make time and take a few moments each day to reconnect with their Source in the mind of the Creator. Some of you who read this may not be ready or comfortable with the notion of a traditional approach to this union as experienced and enjoyed through meditation. My desire and trust is that if you read just this far, something magical will begin to happen. You will begin the process of healing and replenishing your own and humanities Spiritual Deficit. As this begins to happen you will become happier, less agitated by the apparent chaos of daily life and more joyful. You’ll actually begin to experience first hand that living your life is actually part of your dharma and consequently part of your purpose in this lifetime. You'll also begin to see the effects of the changes in you manifest in the lives of those around you. Moments of anger become less and less as you chose instead to witness what is happening around you in the illusion we call our lives.

In a small yet very important way, if each of us chooses to contribute and participate doing what we can to move human kind forward we’ll see the earth restored. Most importantly and graphically we’ll see humankind transform evolving as a more intelligent species that takes responsibility for all of its actions and we'll experience a peace that surpasses all our current understanding. When you light a candle in a darkened room, you never diminish your own light when you share that light with another candle…



Namaste


Jim