Saturday, October 25, 2014

An Experiment

Hakone, Japan

Why should we believe that there is such a thing as enlightenment?  Why shouldn't we believe that material existence is all there is?  It certainly has much to offer.  The Earth has great beauty, and we have the opportunity to accomplish magnificent things, to love and be loved, to pursue happiness and attain beautiful objects.  We have so much to be grateful for on this Earth.  Why should we leave the comfort and safety of our belief systems?

And yet, we are often dysfunctional and unsatisfied.  Our relationships are strained, our health is deteriorating, our possessions do not give us satisfaction, we cover our feelings of inadequacy and insecurity with alcohol, sex, drugs and everything else which allows us not to feel our emotions.

Let's try an experiment.

Unlike religion, no faith or belief is necessary.  If there is a spiritual world, if enlightenment does exist, if there is an Infinite Energy Source which binds us and with which we can access wisdom, joy, peace, love and freedom, how can we prove it to be true?

If everything is going great in all aspects of our lives, there is no need to do anything.  If our relationships are loving, our career is satisfying and we are happy and grateful to be alive, no change is required.  Our lives are blessed.

If, on the other hand, we are unsatisfied, afraid, and feel something is missing from our lives, we can test the hypothesis that we can awaken to our "true" selves by trying it out and seeing what results.

How do we test it?  We test it by surrendering our thoughts and beliefs.  We "pretend" our thoughts and beliefs are untrue and we acknowledge and surrender them.  We do not avoid them.  We do not push them away.  We look them squarely in the face and let them go.  If they are untrue, they do not serve us.

When we surrender our thoughts, we live more and more in the present.  We are in harmony with the Infinite Energy Source, which will respond to us and help us in our experiment.

As we turn towards it, it turns towards us.  Our lives will begin to experience the peace, love, joy and grace which are our very essence.  We will know who we really are. Things will start to go our way.  Things that used to bother us will seem so unimportant.  We will be filled with gratitude because our lives are filled with peace and grace.

The more we surrender, the more we awaken, and the more evidence we will have that everything that the spiritual masters having been saying for thousands of years is true.

Let's try it.  We have nothing to lose but our misery.


Sunday, October 12, 2014

Courage


Dylan

In any and every given moment, we have a choice.  We can choose love or fear, peace or frustration, joy or unhappiness, freedom or mental imprisonment.

Why would we ever choose fear over love?  Because we have been brainwashed by every person we have met since the day we were born.  We have been programmed by everyone in our lives and all of the groups that they belong to: gender groups, religious groups, academic groups, geographic groups, social groups, etc.  Our programming has created a dense belief system that we have tied our identity to.

These groups exact a very high price for non-conforming beliefs and actions:  criticism, anger and, ultimately, ostracism.  Is it worth the sacrifice?  That is up to us.

The belief structures are embedded deep inside our subconscious minds.  It takes great courage to make choices that are different than the ones made by the many groups we belong to.  Once we do, although certain people will begin to fall away from our lives, others, who are more similar to our vibration, will enter.

How do we choose love over fear.  By making a conscious choice to acknowledge and surrender our thoughts in every moment.  We surrender thought and choose presence.

Let's have the courage to choose peace.