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.

Emotions

Bay of Islands, New Zealand

Emotions are thoughts which manifest within the body.

Thoughts are ephemeral, non physical, imaginings.  They have no power until they take hold in the physical body. Anger, passion, fear, and frustration are caused by thoughts which arise from our conditioned belief systems.

Thoughts on their own have no power.  When thoughts combine with painful memories (thoughts of the past), they begin to gather strength.  In short order the body begins to react.  Adrenaline levels rise.  Blood rushes to our face and head.  No matter how hard we try to keep our composure, we are soon out of control.

We can break the hold that our thoughts and emotions have over us by bringing our awareness (i.e., our attention without judgment) to them.  When we bring awareness to our emotions without reacting to them, they begin to dissipate, like the air slowly going out of a balloon.  The more we bring our awareness to our emotions, the less of a hold they have over our lives.

If we try to stifle or ignore our emotions, they will often cause disease or gain in strength within our subconscious, ready to explode at the next opportunity.

Let's bring awareness to our thoughts and emotions.

Being

Roberton Island, Bay of Islands, New Zealand

Our journey is over.  We can stop searching, striving, learning, struggling, and seeking.  There is nothing to find, nothing to learn.  It is the effort that is keeping us from our goals.

All that we have to do is surrender to the peace, love and joy that is already within us.  We do not have to follow a religion, a spiritual master, or a guru.  We do not need to read books.

The peace that we seek is already present.  It is what we are.  All the anxiety, desire, frustration, and anger that we feel has been layered on top of who we really are through a lifetime of conditioning.

Although there is nothing that we have to add to ourselves in order to feel peace, there are things we need to shed.  We need to surrender our conditioned beliefs, judgments, expectations, and desires.

When we shed our thoughts about the past and future, and other garbage that we are thinking, we are left with our true selves.  We will be at peace.  Our relationships will be effortless.  The answers to all our problems will be apparent.  Miracles will occur.

Let's acknowledge our thoughts and surrender them to the Void.

Perfection

Coromandel, New Zealand

Can we see the perfection in this moment, in every moment?  Everything is exactly as it should be.  Everything that occurs is specifically designed to enhance our awakening.

When we resent or resist what is happening in this moment, we are interfering with the Divine flow of nature.  Things seem to go against us. Our irritation and frustration increases.

When we allow things to be just as they are and accept them with gratitude, we are in harmony with All That Is.  Miracles begin to flow naturally into our lives.  We are blessed.

Let's relax into the Present Moment.

Simple

Central Park

Let's keep it simple.

1.  Let's bring our attention to the present.

2.  Let's keep our attention on the present.

Perfect.  We are now awake.

Being

Kereta, Coromandel, New Zealand

Peace.  Love.  Joy.  Freedom.  We have all had glimpses of these states of being.  Is it possible to perpetuate those states.  Of course.

They are our very essence.  All we have to do is switch from thinking to being.

When we turn our attention away from thought, our essence fills the vacuum.  We are in our natural state of peace, love, joy and freedom.

We do not have to learn anything, achieve anything, follow anybody, read anything.  There is nothing that we have to do.  All that we have to do is make a choice in this very moment to shift our attention from thought to being.  The Universe will do the rest.

Easy peasy.  Let's be free.