Gratitude

Coromandel, New Zealand

Why is gratitude the key to abundance?  Because gratitude is abundance.  We are grateful because we have everything we need to be happy and fulfilled.

Think of the Universe as a giant machine, like the holodeck on Star Trek.  We will experience what we program into it.  We program it with what we think, say and believe. We are programming our experiences through our beliefs.

If we want to ascertain what our beliefs are, all we have to do is look at our lives.  When we embody gratitude, it signals to the Universe that we have abundance.  That programming allows more abundance to flow into our lives.

Gratitude cannot be faked.  We cannot say, "all I have to do to have what I want is to act grateful." It is the wanting that is keeping us from the having.  When we are grateful, we want for nothing.

We can begin to embody gratitude by embracing the little things (which are actually the most important things).  We can enjoy and appreciate things like walking in nature, holding hands, the pleasures of sex, looking at the sunset, brunch with an old friend, dancing, or the simple act of breathing.  The more that we appreciate the things in our lives which we enjoy, the more amazing things we will attract.

Let's be grateful.

Enlightenment Now

East Cape, New Zealand

It is time for us to get off the "spiritual path."  Many spiritually minded people say that they are on the path because that is an appropriate and modest thing to say.  Being on the path is a perfectly fine place to be.

The only problem is, the Universe will create a reality in perfect alignment with what we believe.  If we are on the path, we will always be on the path.  When we think it and say it, we do not have the actual intention that someday we will arrive and be enlightened.

The only reason that we do not believe that we will ever awaken is because we do not believe that we are capable of it.  We think that enlightenment is only for Indian gurus or a handful of great spiritual teachers.  We believe that it is too difficult.  This belief leaves us in a perpetual state of becoming.

There is a different way.  We can declare in this very moment that we are enlightened and will it into being.  I have written about The Upward Spiral in previous posts, and will not repeat what I said here.  Suffice it to say, if we declare it right now, the Universe will respond in an instant, and bring it into reality.  If we think it, declare it, and believe it, we will will it into reality.  Negative thoughts, such as anger, loneliness, frustration and fear cannot survive in the face of the strongly held belief that we are enlightened.

How awesome would it be if every person reading this post became enlightened in this very moment!

Let's get off the path and wake up right now.  This moment is the only time we can awaken.  We cannot awaken in the future because the future is an illusion.  It is only a concept.  It has no existence.  Now is the only time that exists.

Hallelujah!  We are now enlightened!

Guilt

Bozeman, Montana

The vast majority of the guilt that we feel serves no purpose whatsoever.

True guilt has a natural purpose.  When we feel guilty about something we did, we can try to correct it, apologize for it, and resolve that when a similar situation arises, we will act differently.  Natural guilt causes us to be better and better.

Artificial guilt only serves to make us anxious and depressed.  It serves no function.

How can we tell the difference between natural and artificial guilt?  When we feel guilty,  we can ask ourselves the following question:  "If we were confronted with the same situation, would we do the same thing, or something different?"  If the answer is that we would do something different, that is natural guilt.  We can try to repair the situation that we caused, apologize sincerely, and resolve to act differently in the future.  The guilt has served its purpose and dissolves of its own accord.

If the answer is that we would do the exact same thing, that is artificial guilt.  Artificial guilt is a relic of our conditioned belief systems.  It is not necessary to figure out where it came from.  It is important to just get rid of it.  We can rid ourselves of artificial guilt permanently in about a month.

When we feel guilty and ask ourselves the question: "If we were in the same situation, would we do something different or would we do the same thing," and realize that we would do the same thing, the realization that the artificial guilt serves no purpose lessens its hold on us.  By undergoing this process, we understand how absurd it is to feel guilty.  We surrender the thought and feeling, and it dissolves when faced with the light of awareness.  With practice, it never even has a chance to affect us.  We are immediately able to differentiate between natural and artificial guilt and the artificial guilt disappears before it is able to enter our consciousness.

Let's be aware of our guilt.

Being

Coromandel, New Zealand

Sometimes it is great not to do anything.  Not to meditate, listen to music, watch tv, surf the internet, blog, talk to someone, think, exercise, or do anything at all.  We think we always have to do something.  We feel guilty being idle, remembering everything that "needs" doing.

We can just sit peacefully, looking around (or not), our mind falling silent as the thoughts glide by our consciousness unimpeded.

There is great power in being.  Being is often more powerful than doing.  We think that we always have to do something in order to accomplish something.  Doing can be a gigantic waste of time.  Being can give us the clarity to do just the thing that we need to do.

Let's not do anything until we are compelled to do so.

Stillness

Santa Fe, New Mexico

God whispers, rarely shouts.  God will never enter our life uninvited.  Of course, God is us and we are God.  However, we cut ourselves off from our higher self with the noise of our thoughts.

When we are in stillness, we can hear the subtle messages from the Infinite Energy Source.  It is the space between thoughts where the information we all crave resides.  Stillness arises when we allow our thoughts and feelings to pass through our awareness like clouds drifting across the sky.  It is when we grab onto our thoughts or believe that they represent the truth, that stress begins to enter into our lives.  The stress leads to frustration, anger, disappointment and depression.

When we hold onto our negative thoughts, they automatically attach themselves to painful memories and we begin to unconsciously spin out of control.  The sadness which would have passed in a few minutes, becomes a depression which lasts for hours or days.

We can break this memory association by bringing awareness to our thoughts and feelings.  Awareness is attention without judgment.  When we surrender our judgments and opinions and watch our thoughts pass through our awareness, we become still.  In this stillness, peace, love and joy reside.

When we give up control in stillness, we begin to fulfill our true purpose.  Our decisions bring us and everyone involved the highest outcome.  Miracles cascade into our lives.  We experience a peace and joy that we have never known.  All that we have to do is give up who we think we are and be who we truly are.

Let's be still.

Love

Summer, Big Bear, California

Bringing love to a situation will always surprise us.  We will never receive the response that we expect. When we are indifferent to the result, love will often heal the pain that we find in others, as well as ourselves.

The object of our disdain is often merely misunderstood.  The person that we are angry with for ignoring us, may merely be lost in thought about their own health or the loss of a loved one.  We are almost always wrong when we think we know what others are thinking.  Also, meanness, greed and selfishness always come from a deep self-loathing and despair.  When we realize this, are we really doing our best by resenting them? 

The hardest spiritual discipline for me was being able to love those that hate us or are trying to do us harm.  I finally realized that my anger and hatred was not getting me anywhere regardless of whether it was "justified" or not.  Of course, we can always defend ourselves and others against those which intend to do physical or emotional harm.  And we can always express our feelings about other people's behavior. But our irritation, anger, and self-righteousness only harms ourselves. 

Love can often bring a healing to the situation.  But even if it doesn't, our peace and well being do not need to be upended.

Only love can heal us.  Only love can heal an impossible situation.  Love will heal our loneliness, our frustration, and our despair.

Let's bring love to every situation that we encounter.

Death

Pohutukawa Tree, New Zealand

The fear of death follows us like our very own shadow.  It is certain that every living thing will someday be dead (some scientists believe that babies being born today may never die due to the accelerated pace of advances in artificial organs and robotics, but thinking about that makes my head want to explode, so we will leave that alone for now).

The unexamined fear of death affects everything that we do.  It brings irrational fears, neuroses, rage, dread, and so on.  We do not have enough information to determine whether death is indeed a bad thing.  Why do we assume that death is something horrible?  We do know that energy cannot be created or destroyed.  Why would we not think that death is just another adventure?  Regardless, the sooner that we become comfortable with the idea that we will be dead sooner or later, the more we will enjoy life and the better off that we will be.

It is not about thinking that life is short, so we better enjoy it while we can.  It is remembering that the present moment is eternal.  Once we live in the eternal space of the Now, we become at peace with everything that happens to us, including our impending deaths.

Let's be at peace with the concept and reality of death.