December 31, 2006 – 1:51 am
With the beginning of every New Year people are full of resolve to reach dreams and the realization of their personal calling. Most will give up when they do not reach these dreams easily. Thomas Edison said that is why we see so much failure–people giving up. But vision, coupled with resolve and patience, is [...]
December 30, 2006 – 1:33 am
We always have a choice to speak, think, or act in ways that will either strengthen us or weaken us. It’s a question of awareness and purpose. If we have the purpose to strengthen our consciousness and vitality and we want to experience life at its deepest level, we choose one way. If not, we [...]
December 30, 2006 – 1:25 am
Spiritual retreat centers serve a great function in this over-stressed world of duality. When my life seems fragmented, or stressful, that’s where I go. After a few days, I return home rested, relaxed, renewed, and revitalized. It’s a transforming experience that I want to explain. Just as computer hard drives need to be defragmented and [...]
December 29, 2006 – 1:20 am
There is a scene in the movie Forest Gump when the mentally retarded Forrest is in basic training with the U.S. Army: Drill Sergeant: Gump! What’s your sole purpose in this army? Forrest Gump: To do whatever you tell me, drill sergeant! Drill Sergeant: God damn it, Gump! You’re a goddamned genius! This is the [...]
December 28, 2006 – 9:55 pm
There is a lot of emphasis in Personal Development about choosing the direct path to the goal. It seems an obvious enough truth. But life in the 21st century is a life of global distraction. If we want to get to our goal in direct fashion, we better have plenty of focus, motivation, and determination. [...]
December 27, 2006 – 9:52 pm
In the zone, everything flows. We get beyond the mind and our preconceptions of how things are and we become participants in the flow of life, or perhaps you might call it, the dance of life. The Indian sage Patanjali is credited to having said over 2000 years ago, “Dormant forces, faculties, and talents come [...]
December 26, 2006 – 9:48 pm
Moving beyond ordinary is as simple as choosing to do so. We need to abandon the world of finite imagination and begin the process of infinite imagination. Just because we lived life a certain way yesterday, and the day before that doesn’t mean that we are limited in our choices to living it the same [...]
December 25, 2006 – 6:18 pm
I overheard a conversation yesterday about transcending guilt. One person was saying that she was aware that she was recycling guilt and wanted to move beyond it. The other person said that a little guilt is good–it lets you know what you could have done better. Maybe this is semantics, but I don’t need to [...]
December 23, 2006 – 1:45 pm
I have a saying, “Friends don’t let friends sleepwalk.” Let me explain. Do you ever wake up in a bad mood, with a really negative attitude? Do you notice that the whole day just gets worse? I learned years ago that the universe never disappoints you. If you are think life sucks, the universe will [...]
December 22, 2006 – 9:48 pm
Learning of my ex-wife’s death in a novel earlier this year was perhaps the strangest thing that ever happened to me. Here is how it happened. My current wife and I were sitting at our dining room table eating lunch. I got the thought in my head that I haven’t called my friend Marc in [...]
December 21, 2006 – 8:04 pm
Was Leonardo da Vinci a Buddhist? He strikes me that way–sort of like a Zen Buddhist. Consider the following quote: “In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes; so with present time.” Is that Zen or what? Or how about this: “Nothing [...]
December 20, 2006 – 7:02 pm
Communication can be difficult. Communicating with difficult people can be almost impossible. What makes a difficult communication difficult? Is it fear? Is it the past history of trying to communicate with someone who seems to personify tyranny? How we approach the communication will have a big bearing on how it culminates. If our voice is [...]
December 19, 2006 – 6:50 pm
It’s important to identify and eliminate unconscious habit patterns from our life. These thoughtless modes of action severely limit our experience of life. An example would be worry. We integrate it into our daily life because we become use to it. We cease to give it conscious attention. People worry throughout their whole lives without [...]
December 18, 2006 – 6:44 pm
Getting beyond the ego is not easy because it is so deeply entrenched. “Looking out for number one” is the mantra of the ego. Selfishness is its mission statement. Fear and greed are its motivation or driving force. It is more concerned with appearances that with actual being. Its whole existence is based on the [...]
December 16, 2006 – 6:22 pm
Worry is so commonplace in our lives that we take it for granted that to live is to worry. This might seem to be a self-evident truth, but it is not in any way true. If we give it some thought, we will soon realize what a waste of energy worry is. It makes us [...]
December 15, 2006 – 6:09 pm
Chronic attitudes become definers for some people. It’s natural for people to get upset or stressed from time to time. The problem arises when the upsets and stresses become a way of life. In my own life, sometimes I get overconfident in my abilities to control my mind and stay focused and happy. This happens [...]
December 13, 2006 – 6:01 pm
When we are plagued with guilt–its ugly head encircling our consciousness with its limiting beliefs, we need to counteract it. How? Since guilt is a product of the unconscious mind steeped in the past, the solution is consciousness–life fully lived in the present moment. Guilt is a blemish on the surface of our consciousness that [...]
December 12, 2006 – 5:40 pm
Here is what Wikipedia has to say about enthusiasm: “(Greek: enthousiasmos) originally meant inspiration or possession by a divine afflatus or by the presence of a God. Johnson’s Dictionary, the first comprehensive dictionary of the English language, divines enthusiasm as “a vain belief of private revelation; a vain confidence of divine favour or communication.” In [...]
December 11, 2006 – 5:02 pm
Today someone asked me if I knew of a tool that could be used to make it easier to listen to the voice of the heart when the mind talks so incessantly–when guilt and anxiety make it hard to experience satisfaction and peace. Two words immediately formed in my consciousness. “Love Body.” This seemed to [...]
December 9, 2006 – 3:33 pm
Vibrational medicine is the reason why I am still alive today. I was brought to the verge of death with a serious digestive disorder. I was told that it would plague me for the rest of my life. “Know that all strength, all healing of every nature is the changing of the vibrations from within-the [...]
December 8, 2006 – 3:26 pm
Is there a difference between a hero and a heretic? Or between heroism and heresy? They all are derived from the Greek word, hairétikos, which means “able to choose.” When we are conscious, beyond the control of the mind and all of its conditioned programming, we can make choices. When we question what has meaning [...]
December 6, 2006 – 2:57 pm
Lack of confidence, is really nothing more than a lack of consciousness. It was projecting yourself into an imaginary future that created the thought that you were inadequate for the task. And that, living outside of the present moment, is unconsciousness. Your first step is to be aware of it and put an end to [...]
December 5, 2006 – 11:27 pm
“Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.” — Leonardo Da Vinci Finding meaningful work is crucial to having a successful career. How fortunate we are when we receive professional service from someone whose spirit does work with their hands; a doctor or nurse, an architect, a mechanic, a teacher, [...]
December 4, 2006 – 11:19 pm
Meaning of life is everything. Without it, there would be no purpose in being alive. When I look back on the course of my life I see that it was my perception of meaning that shaped everything I did–whether is was becoming a musician, a writer, a photographer, having a family, traveling to India on [...]
December 2, 2006 – 11:11 pm
Today I received a life lesson. In an earlier article I wrote on poise I mentioned how to make a game of it. When you lose your poise, you lose. When you get through a situation that in the past would have rattled you, you win. Today I lost. I was trying to fine-tune my [...]