Silence

We are constantly distracted by television, the computer, music, idle chatter with friends, etc. The noise of the city is deafening. The media bombards us with advertising, publicity and sordid revelations about shallow celebrities.

It is not surprising that we are driven to desire and fear in a constant cycle of dissatisfaction and unease. The non-stop advertising from drug manufacturers is very well designed to keep us in a constant state of worry about our health and well being. The fast food industry makes sure that we will need the drugs that the pharmaceuticals sell.

The external noise creates the most disturbing noise of all, the noise within our heads. Our thoughts are programmed by the non-stop conditioning of input from the outside world.

We can free ourselves from this bondage of which we are scarcely aware, and transcend the noise and the never-ending cycles of fear and desire, boredom and escape.

We can rise above the noise by observing the noise within us and outside of us without judgment. By observing the noise, we break our attachment to the messages contained within it. We become comfortable with silence and lose the need to be distracted.

Let's embrace silence.

Stillness

Can we sit in a chair without speaking, eating, thinking, meditating, or doing anything at all? Can we feel our hearts beating and the blood coursing through our bodies? Can we feel our feet come in contact with the ground when we walk? Can we feel the breeze touch the skin on our face? Do we feel ourselves tensing our muscles? Can we release the tension when we bring our awareness to them? Do we see the world come and go without judgment?

When we are still, we do.

When we are still, we are in synch with the Infinite Energy Source. We are unfazed by the turbulence that surrounds us. We are at peace.

When we are still, everything changes. We no longer endlessly strive for things that we desire. We are not jostled by the highs and lows of everyday life. Our problems disappear. Our petty jealousies and hatreds fade. We are one.

Let's just be.

Freedom

We are prisoners of our conditioned mind. From birth, we have been programmed to think, feel and act in accordance with our gender, religion, economic class, region, etc. We sleepwalk through life.

We can become free by realizing that everything that we believe is false. We are not restricted by being male or female. We do not have to belong to or follow a religion. We do not have to consider ourselves Americans.

We will be free when we surrender all of our thoughts and beliefs and become comfortable with the uncertainty of not knowing. By releasing all of our beliefs, we awaken to who we truly are. We release our stress at the same time. Our stress was caused by the conflict between what we think we are and what we truly are.

Let's surrender to freedom.

The Watcher

If we are unaware of our thoughts, emotions and actions, we move through life like conditioned robots. We are buffeted between fear and desire, programmed to respond in a certain way since birth. The programming continues throughout our life, until we awaken.

The media barrages our unconscious mind with the desire to purchase items which we think will fulfill us, and drugs, which we think will bring us health and well-being. We are brainwashed.

By bringing awareness to our thoughts, emotions and activities, we break the pattern of conditioned responses.

Awareness is simply attention (or observation) without judgment. When we perceive ourselves without making judgments of any kind, we allow the infinite energy of Source to flow through us. Our activities are then in alignment and we will experience a profound peace. There may be some turbulence in our outer lives, but that is because our true selves have been repressed for so long.

Are we the one who is perceiving or the one who is being perceived? We are both, and this bifurcation allows us to become aware that we are much, much greater than we think we are.

Let's become mindful of our thoughts, our emotions, and our actions and start truly living.

Love

We search for people or things to fill the hole inside ourselves. We seek status, prestigious jobs, expensive fashions, impressive cars, etc. We try to fill the hole with alcohol, drugs, sex, exercise, work.

The hole cannot be filled because there is no hole. We attempt to attain something which cannot be attained. No matter how successful, popular, powerful or beautiful we are, we do not find fulfillment.

Love is the answer. Not the yearning for someone or some thing. But the realization that love is what we are. By dropping our identity and our notions of who we think we are or want to be, we find ourselves. We can discover our Selves by being present, without thought.

Let's be aware of our true nature.

Heaven

If we are not living in Heaven right now, we are never going to find the Heaven we think we are looking for.

If we believe that we are working towards achieving a particular state or will someday be there, it will not arrive, because it is what we already are.

No belief can get us there. We cannot learn how to get there. No knowledge can bring us closer.

Only by shedding our beliefs and judgments about it, can we recognize our natural state, which is one with the Eternal.

Let's stop striving for future goals and become what we are, right now.

Joy

There is no happiness without unhappiness. Happiness and unhappiness are irrevocably tied.

We can transcend the cycle of happiness and unhappiness. There are no steps that we need to take or lessons that we need to learn to achieve it. It cannot be learned. It cannot be achieved. There is no path to become joyful. It underlies our being.

Joy is our natural state. We can experience joy by surrendering all of our assumptions, judgments and ideas about what we should be doing and how we should be living. By peeling back the layers of who we think we are, we become what we are, joy peace and love.

Let's surrender to joy.