Miracles

Qamea, Fiji

What is a miracle?  A miracle is a shift in perception that causes something unexpected and beautiful to occur.

Life can be repetitious and boring and something to be dreaded, or it can be an infinite series of miracles, one more beautiful than the next.  Or it can be anything in between.  the Universe will present as many miracles into our lives as we allow It to.  It is entirely up to us.

People in Los Angeles love to be cynical and judgmental.  It makes us feel special to believe and receive agreement on the faults of others.  That is fine, except by doing so we are confirming and materializing our own inadequacy.

We can allow life to be a wondrous adventure, filled with a never ending series of miracles, by dropping our judgments, desires and expectations and letting life be just what it is.  When we surrender our puny and small minded will to the Universal will, we fulfill our life's purpose for the maximum benefit of all involved.

Let's allow Life to be just as it is.

Love

Nara, Japan

Love and fear.  These are the two root emotions from which every other one derives.  We are making a choice of one or the other every moment, even though we may not be aware that we are making a choice.

One road takes us to frustration, despair, anger, disappointment and self-loathing.  The other road takes us to love, peace, wisdom, and a feeling of connection to everything and everyone.  The choice should not be too hard, should it?

Since we are magnets which attract the things that we focus our attention on, when we choose fear, we will attract things which make us fearful.  When we choose love, positive things will start to happen to us.  We will attract other loving people into our lives.  The Universe will start to tilt in our direction. Reality will become a beautiful unfolding, rather than random chaos or an oppressive force which is out to get us.

Let's release our anger, frustration, fear and hatred, and turn our awareness to the love that binds us all.  It can happen in an instant.  It is as simple as turning on a switch.

Let's choose love.

Allowing

Waiheke Island, New Zealand

We think we know who we are.  We think we know what we want.  We strive and work for things that we think will make us whole or fulfill us.  We yearn for things that others have.  We are convinced that if we only had a romantic partner, a new job, more money, a better home, an education, more friends, a better childhood, better looks, more youth, better health, a new car, new clothes, or better luck, that the holes in our hearts would finally be filled.

The truth is that if we had any or all of these things, we would soon find ourselves alone and frustrated again.  In fact, we might even feel more depressed because, if the thing that we thought would make us whole does not, there is truly no hope for us.  I believe that is what happened to Michael Jackson.  He had everything that anyone could have, yet found no peace, love or joy in his life.  If having everything does not make us happy, then the world must indeed be an evil and terrifying place.

Of course, there is another way.

We could have more peace, love and joy in our lives than we can possibly imagine.    Indeed it is our heritage.  It is what we are.  It is so simple to find because it is right there for us to discover at any given moment (how about this very one?).

All that we have to do is choose a different way.  

How do we do it?  We give up our desires and expectations, and surrender our will to the Divine Infinite.  We surrender our will to God's will.  When we do this, our lives will be filled with miracles, and we will discover our life's purpose.

Let's allow divine wisdom to guide us.

Acknowledge and Surrender

Whangapoua Beach, Coromandel, New Zealand

Our unhappiness, anger and frustration are caused by unexamined thought.

We can begin to experience the peace, love and joy that is our very nature once we decide to bring awareness (i.e., attention without judgment) to our thoughts.

It takes courage to examine our thoughts.  Our thoughts were driven into our subconscious for a reason: in order to protect us from being hurt.  However, our subconscious thoughts infect our lives in ways we cannot imagine.  They color everything we say and do.

No thought can hurt us if we examine it without labeling or judging it.  It is the emotional response to the thought which causes us pain.  A thought triggers additional thoughts and memories which are consistent with the original thought.  Our mind spins into a cycle of regret and despair.

We can end this cycle of pain by acknowledging our thoughts and surrendering them to the Void.  The thought arises.  We bring our attention to it without judgment of any kind.  This prevents our thoughts from becoming a breeding ground for similar thoughts and negative emotions. Once we bring our attention to the thought without judgment, our attachment to it dissolves.

When we are stressed, it is very difficult to examine our thoughts because they are coming too fast.  It is very helpful to build some space around our thoughts by slowing them down.

We can slow down the pace of our thoughts by bringing our attention to our breathing, meditation, yoga, walking in nature, etc.  It is then much easier to examine and acknowledge our thoughts.

Let's acknowledge and surrender our thoughts.

Love

Swan and cygnets, Lake Taupo, New Zealand

Love or fear?  These are our root emotions.  The choice seems obvious. However, if the best choice is so clear, why do we, on any given day, mostly choose fear?

We choose fear because we are not aware that we are choosing.  We are not aware that we have a choice.  The choices are made, moment by moment, on subconscious levels.  When we act unconsciously, we are mostly driven by negative emotions, such as fear, anger and frustration, which are derived from our stale belief systems, built up and reinforced over our lifetimes.

How do we begin to make conscious choices?  We make conscious choices by bringing awareness (i.e., our attention without judgment) to our thoughts. Once we are aware of our thoughts, we can begin to make different choices.

Let's choose love.

The Watcher

Hakone, Japan

We are not our thoughts.  Our thoughts are derived from programming which started when we were born and continues to this day.  If we wrote down all of the thoughts that we had in any particular day, the list would consist of regret aver things that have occurred in the past, worry about possible events in the future, and fantasies about obtaining things which we think would make us feel whole.  But the largest portion of our thoughts would consist of nonsensical gibberish which has no connection to reality or our present lives.

Our anger, frustration and despair is not caused by our thoughts.  It is caused by our being unconscious of our thoughts.  When we think unconsciously (i.e., without awareness), we believe that our thoughts are true and represent who we are.  Actually, the vast majority of our thoughts are not true.

When we bring awareness (i.e., our attention without judgment) to our thoughts, we create a separation between our thoughts and ourselves.  We begin to understand that our thoughts are not who we are.

When this separation occurs, our thoughts start to lose their power over us. Eventually, we can look at our thoughts with amusement or even hilarity. They become so ridiculous to us that we are amazed that we ever took them seriously.

If we are not our thoughts, then who are we?  We are the one who is aware of our thoughts.  When we are aware without judgment, we are in harmony with the Infinite Energy Source (some call it God).  Our lives unfold in fulfilling ways and we experience peace, love and joy.

Let's be aware of our thoughts.

Guilt

Kereta, Coromandel, New Zealand

Feelings of guilt ravage our sense of peace and well being.  Guilt has an original purpose: to encourage us to become more conscious.   However, the vast majority of the guilt we feel arises from our conditioned systems of beliefs, and serves no purpose whatsoever.  We are often tormented by these unnecessary feelings. We can rid ourselves of artificial guilt and free ourselves from the nagging voices in our heads, making us feel shame for no reason.

We can free ourselves from this burden by first identifying natural guild, which has an important role to play in our lives, from artificial guilt, which does not.

How can we tell the difference between natural guilt and artificial guilt?  If we feel guilty about something we did, we can ask ourselves: "if the same situation occurred again, would we do the same thing or do something different?" if we would act differently, that is natural guilt.  Once we endeavor to try to fix the situation we created, apologize, and/or resolve to behave differently when a similar situation arises in the future, the guilt dissolves because it has fulfilled its purpose.

If we would do the exact same thing in the same situation, that is artificial guilt.  There is nothing to be done to remedy the situation, and we do not need to resolve to act differently in the future.  Once we acknowledge this, we can release the feelings of guilt because we recognize them for what they are: an ancient artifact from a useless belief system.  The feelings of artificial guilt will dissolve once we are aware that they serve no purpose whatsoever, except to torment us.

Let's be free.