Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Good News - Bad News

The Bad News

If I put all my attention on what's wrong, then that's all I will notice in my life.

The Good News

Once you know that, then you can do something about it.

The Better News

If I put my attention on what I have, I feel gratitude. And gratitude attracts more Good in my life. How? When I am grateful, I am open. That openness and joy I feel when I am in gratitude allows good things to come to me.


The Best News

The One that created us and all the world is constantly giving Itself to us. We are not solid. This is not just rhetoric. Science has found ways to see this. The subatomic particles that make up all matter are actually moving energy. And that moving energy is coming into and out of existence thousands of times per second. So we are not solid. We are not permanent. We are not who we think we are.

If we are not who we think we are, then who are we?

Who is it that knows that you are reading right now? Who is it that knows what you think and feel in response to it?

There is something in you that witnesses everything you think, feel, do, remember. Can you feel that? Sit with this a moment. Close your eyes. Does that part have a face? Does that part have an age? Does that part have a role?

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The Spaciousness of Emptiness
Slowest Common Denominator
Living in the Hum, Not the Hum-Drum

How About You?

Does that part feel ageless? timeless?
Did you like it? Did it scare you? Did it feel like home?


Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Peeling the Onion

I've heard the spiritual journey likened to peeling an onion.

When I first heard that analogy, I remembered something that happened when I was 17.

I was riding my bicycle home after my first love told me he was marrying someone else, I suddenly felt free and happy, realizing that a layer had fallen away. I felt like an onion that had been liberated of one of its outer layers.

Everything that you are, is already in you. You are simply uncovering that perfect Light that you are.

Call it the real you, your essential Self, your true essence, your spirit, the witness, or many other names. Whatever you call it, at some point, you have probably felt the you inside of you.

Who is that?

It's the awareness in you that knows who you are, what you are doing at any given moment, knows that you are speaking, breathing, playing, working. 

That awareness is you. 

That awareness is God, Spirit, the Force, Life. We all have different names for it. But we all know it when we stop a moment to listen.

Try It, You'll Like It!

Close your eyes. How do you know you are here? You feel your body as it sits on a chair or stands. If
it is quiet where you are, you feel and hear your breath.You become aware that you are thinking. That is the part of you that knows that you are doing those things.

We only feel divided because we learned to be that way. Just like our parents, peers, teachers, and their parents, and so on back through the generations. All the way back to the Garden of Eden where we first thought we were separate from the One that created us.

So that's all meditation is. Just sitting still for a few minutes to be still in that presence that you are.

Give It a Whirl

If you've never tried it, I recommend it. Just sit and be as though you were sitting quietly with a good friend. Someone who knows you better than anyone on Earth. If sitting still isn't your style, try walking silently in nature. Or dancing or singing. Anything where you forget "yourself" and have the chance to just BE.

If you do this regularly, you just might notice that you feel more peace in your life.

You may Also Like:
Don't Believe Everything You Think
Feeling Without? Look Within
How Did I Get Here?
What If I Just Can’t Connect to My Inner Knowing?

How About You?

Do you sit quietly to meditate, or prefer walking or some activity?

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

A Broader View

When I feel stuck in a situation, I try to remember to take a broader view.
What does that mean?

For me, it means remembering that there's more to the situation than how I perceive it, and what I think about it.

If there are other people involved in the situation, they have their own perception and thoughts about it. Although witnesses to/in an event may agree on the facts of what happened, each person saw it from a different vantage point, and even two people standing side by side may see something different.

Near Miss or Plenty of Time?

For example, a few months ago, I was chatting with a neighbor who was outside with her elderly dog. the distance of at least a block away, a truck roared quickly up the road. But at least a half block away, I saw him slow down dramatically. I assumed that he saw the dog in the road and slowed down.

I thought, that was nice of him. The dog had plenty of time to move to the side out of any danger. My friend waved down the driver as he came slowly by. I thought she would thank him for slowing down. I was quite surprised when my friend shouted at the driver for racing down the road and not stopping in time. After a short interchange, he drove off shaking his head, looking quite upset himself.

I thought about saying something to my friend, but she was still upset. So I listened to her, and realized that she saw something completely different than what I had seen. In her mind, the car had not slowed down much, and not very far from the dog. There was no point in arguing, because that is what she saw. Perhaps fear and protective instinct for her dog clouded her vision. Perhaps she was having a bad day and was not at ease before this happened. Perhaps I interpreted his speed based on my own fast reaction time.

We'll never know since there was no video camera capturing the scene to give us an instant replay.

Eye of the Beholder


So if something small like this can have such different interpretations, just think about how easy it must be to misinterpret larger events.

Dr Kenn Gordon, spiritual leader of Centers for Spiritual Living, explains it this way:
"A person sitting on the deck of a boat at sea can, with a mathematical certainty, see approximately three miles in every direction. That means we have the ability, if unobstructed, to see an area of around 9 square miles. If that same person climbed the mast of the same boat - let's say 25 feet higher - he would then be able to see eight miles or 64 square miles in total area, an area six times larger than what is seen just sitting on the deck. And so it goes with all horizons – physical, mental, and emotional. There is an exponential increase in view when one rises above the form of one's perception."

So when I think I have been slighted by someone, or someone grabs the parking spot I was hoping for, I have the choice to wonder what else might be true in the bigger picture.

How About You?

How do you remind yourself to think beyond your perceptions?