Sunday, July 27, 2014

Insight


Venice Beach

Our thoughts are like a solid wall, not allowing insight to enter.  When we are perpetually thinking, there is no room for anything except our thoughts.  We need to make space for wisdom to appear.

If we create an empty vessel, by surrendering our thoughts, insight will flood in to fill the vacuum.

We spin our wheels, lost in thought, trying to figure out the solution to a dilemma we are experiencing.  It is the endless thoughts which are preventing the solution from entering our consciousness.

In an empty vessel, wisdom will flood in, health will flood in.  So will peace, love, joy and freedom. These things will enter when we are in a state of being, as opposed to doing or thinking.

Do we have a problem?  Instead of trying to figure it out, let's surrender our thoughts and allow the solution to present itself.

Let's allow wisdom and insight to enter our consciousness.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Embrace and Surrender

Central Park

Our emotions are the keys to awakening.

Are we worried?  Frustrated?  Irritated?  Angry?  Afraid?  Often over little things?  When we experience strong emotions do we lash out with rage?

Does our worry make us happy?  No.  Does our worry help us to further our goals?  No.  Does it serve any function whatsoever.  No.  Are we stuck in a relentless cycle of worry that we can't do anything about?  No.  Do we have a choice?  Absolutely.

We can rid ourselves of worry by bringing awareness to our thoughts and embracing the feelings within our body.  We embrace them, feel them fully, without acting on them, and surrender them.

Worry consists of unacknowledged thoughts which come from fear.  By bringing awareness without judgment to our thoughts and feelings, and surrendering them as useless relics from our conditioned past, we can free ourselves.

Our unacknowledged emotions cause us to say and act in ways that only bring us unhappiness and frustration.  We can use our emotions to awaken.  When we feel a strong emotion, we should not act on it for at least several moments.  We feel it fully.  We bring our awareness to it.  We do not judge it.  The emotion will subside in a brief period of time.  Then we can act on it if we are moved to do so.

The source of our emotion is not what we think it is.  We believe that some person or some event caused the emotion.  Actually, our emotions are caused by our conditioned belief systems.  The person or event which we believe caused the emotion was merely a trigger which caused us to access the unacknowledged thoughts and emotions within us.

Let's embrace our emotions and surrender them to the Void.

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Meditation


Santa Monica, California 

In every given moment, we have a choice.  We can be agitated, frustrated, angry, lonely, anxious and afraid.  Or we can choose peace, love, joy and freedom.

Even though the choice is simple, it is not an easy one to make.  The pull of unconscious thinking is so strong that it is extremely difficult to see that we have any choice at all.  Our thoughts are strong, fast, and relentless.  They arise from a belief system that has been created and reinforced over our entire lives.  We cannot see our way out of our dilemma because we are unable to see another way.  We cannot see that we have a choice.

The most powerful tool at our disposal to help us see and make the choices we want to make is meditation.

Meditation slows down our thoughts and lessens our attachment to them.  It also lessens our attachment to our emotions.  We are not our emotions.  Emotions are feelings that happen to us.  Breaking our attachment to our thoughts and feelings creates a separation between ourselves and them.  When we realize that we are not our thoughts and feelings, we are united with Infinite Energy Source.  The glimpse of Freedom allows us to begin to make different choices in any given moment.

The more we choose freedom rather than fear, the more peaceful our lives become.  Miracles will start to occur.  Indeed, every moment we choose peace, a miracle occurs.  When we choose peace and see the result of that choice it reinforces our ability to choose the life that we want to live.

Meditation can never be unsuccessful.  We believe that if we are constantly thinking during our meditation, that we have failed.  We cannot fail.  The mere act of sitting still, intending to be present, will have major effects that will reverberate throughout every aspect of our lives.

Let's choose Freedom.