Safety

Coromandel, New Zealand

A Course in Miracles says "In my defenselessness, my safety lies."  This means that our safety and security lie not in defending ourselves by arguing or attacking the other person, but by being defenseless.  This seems counter-intuitive.  I am speaking about verbal attacks, although I am certain that the Course is referring to physical attacks as well.

When we are being attacked by someone and we become angry and defend ourselves or attack the other person, we are confirming that what they are saying is true.  We are giving energy to the attack. When we feel that there is no need to defend ourselves, we are confirming that there is no merit to the attack.  The energy of the attack dissipates because we give it no credence.

When we do not defend ourselves, we are confirming to ourselves and the Universe that there is nothing to defend.  Why would we be angry at someone who criticizes us if on some level we did not believe there was some truth to it?  Our ego pushes us to react.  It is almost as if our lives depended on it.  This is because we believe we are who we think we are.

Of course, we are really far, far greater than we think we are.  We are infinite beings with unlimited power.  Once we recognize that, why would we ever have to defend ourselves?

Let's be defenseless.

Courage

Rangitoto, New Zealand

Thoughts cause emotions.  In fact, emotions are the physical manifestations of thought.  When we have a thought such as "I am not good enough," it causes feelings of fear, loathing, etc.  It attracts other similar thoughts, perhaps memories of when we were not good enough.  The feelings increase with the memories and we spiral into a pit of despair and unhappiness. Our thoughts are created from beliefs formed by past events.  It does not matter when or why they initially were formed.

Many of our thoughts create strong emotions.

"I am not good enough";
"I do not have enough money";
"I am not attractive";
"I might get fired and will never get another job";
"Nobody will ever love me";
"Why did I not act upon a past opportunity";
"The Universe is against me";
"Bad things always happen to me";
and so on.

These thoughts which cause strong emotions all come from the same root beliefs:  We are unloved and unloveable.  This is the greatest lie of our lives.  Yet, at our core, we believe it,

Obviously, these thoughts do not serve us.  In fact, they cause our unease and ill health.  They affect our relationships, our careers, and our well being.

We can break the grip that our thoughts have over us.  By bringing attention to our thoughts without judgment, we can learn non-attachment.  The more light we shine on our deepest thoughts, the more their hold over us lessens.  It takes courage to acknowledge our thoughts without reacting.

No thought can hurt us unless we allow it to.  We create the reaction to our thoughts.  We create the pain that our thoughts cause.  Thoughts are only fleeting images in our minds.  They could not be more ephemeral.  They only have the power that we give them.

Let's acknowledge and surrender our thoughts.

Desire

Papa Aroha, Coromandel, New Zealand

What percentage of our thoughts are made up of regret?  What percentage of our thoughts consist of wishing things will occur in the future?  What percentage of our thoughts consist of dreading a future event?  Thoughts such as these make up the majority of our thoughts.  Do any of these thoughts enhance our lives in any way?  Of course not.  In fact, the opposite is true.  Our thoughts are toxic and prevent us from living a healthful, happy, fulfilling life. Yet we continue to waste our time, energy, health and well being on thoughts which do not serve us.

The Buddha said that: Life is suffering.  Suffering is caused by desire.  In order to find peace, we must surrender our desire.

By bringing the light of awareness to our thoughts, they begin to lose their power over us.

Once we are aware of the thoughts which serve no positive purpose whatsoever, we can let them go.

Let's acknowledge and surrender our thoughts.

Love

Venice

Can we love someone who is trying to hurt us emotionally or physically?

If we are angry at someone who cuts us off in traffic, would we feel differently if we found out they were rushing an ill person to the emergency room?  If someone slaps us, would we still be angry if we found out that the person was developmentally disabled?  If someone is trying to hurt us, and there is no obvious reason for their cruelty, how can we feel love for that person?  Does our anger soften when we realize that the cruel person is acting out of a deep self hatred and feeling of hopelessness?

We can change how we react to cruelty.   The anger and hatred we feel to those who have harmed us does nothing to help our situation.  By not reacting, we can more effectively deal with it.  That does not mean that we have to allow people to hurt us or condone their behavior.  We can defend ourselves and others as necessary.  We can and should tell others in a loving way when they have crossed the line. We can even kill with love.

Let's love even those who try to harm us.

Power

Venice Beach This Morning

Studies show that placebos work as well or better than many drugs.  They work even if we know that we are taking a placebo.  More expensive placebos work better than cheaper ones.  We fool ourselves into getting healthy.

We are literally more powerful than we can possibly imagine. 

The only thing preventing us from accessing this power is that we get in our own way.  How do we get out of our way and access the infinite power that is available?  By surrendering our thoughts, which emanate from ancient belief structures which no longer serve us.  Like a snake shedding its skin, we can step away from our belief systems, awaken to who we really are, and experience harmony, peace, love, joy and freedom.

Our power is in the present moment, between our thoughts.  When we surrender our thoughts and allow things to be just as they are without the filter of our many belief systems, we are free.  We see the beauty and grace which lay hidden behind our unconscious beliefs.  We allow miracles to occur and laugh at our past foolish obsessions and pettiness.  Everything that occurs to us is a Divine gift specifically designed for us to enable our awakening.  Once we open our eyes without judgment, we understand what has been there all along, waiting for us to discover it.  

Let's surrender to the Miracle.

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.

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.