Courage

Te Kouma, Coromandel, New Zealand

It takes courage to awaken.  When we move into presence, all of the thoughts and beliefs that we have pushed down into our unconscious because they were too painful to deal with, begin to surface. Facing thoughts that we have pushed down for so many years (since our childhood traumas) requires courage because we think that our thoughts and beliefs are true.  They are not.

Once we realize that our thoughts are not true, we can have the courage to accept and release them, regardless of how heinous we believe they are. The more we comprehend that our thoughts are not true, the less courage that is required.  When we stop believing our thoughts, They lose their power over us.

When we observe our thoughts, we realize that 99% of them are pure gibberish.  They do not serve us.  They hinder our awakening and interfere with our peace and joy.  When we can watch our thoughts without judgment, we can laugh at their ridiculousness.  No courage required. Hilarity ensues.

Let's have the courage to be present.

Who We Are

The best moment of our lives is the moment when we realize that our thoughts are not true.

Aren't our greatest moments those where our basic assumptions are challenged, such as when someone loves us even though we believe that we are unloveable, or we get a big promotion even though we feel that we are unworthy?  One of my most elated moments was the moment I heard that I was accepted to Stanford Law.  It challenged my basic self-assumption that I was mediocre.

If we are not who we think we are, then who are we?  That is the most significant question we will ever face.  If we are not our thoughts or beliefs, who are we?  We are what remains when we surrender our thoughts.  We are awareness.  We are the being who perceives.  The being who perceives is part of the Infinite Being Who Perceives.

http://www.outerplaces.com/science/item/4518-physicists-claim-that-consciousness-lives-in-quantum-state-after-death

Let's appreciate the moment.

Peace

Venice Beach

Peace is what we all crave, yet we don't know how to find it.  We seek it out through relationships, money, career, etc.  If we only had X, our lives would be at peace.  But even if we achieve X, we do not find peace.

What is peace but the absence of thought?  Isn't it our thoughts which cause us to be agitated?

We cannot find peace.  It is what we are.  How simple is it to know that what we crave is what we are.

We just need to choose it in any given moment.  What about this moment?  We will never find it in the future.  The future does not exist.  We can only choose peace in this present moment.

By moving away from thought and bringing our attention to the present moment, we are one with our peaceful eternal selves.

Let's choose peace.  Right now and forever.

Loneliness

Paris

Sometimes it seems like we are utterly alone, even when we are surrounded by friends and family members who love us.  We are not alone.  We are a divine portion of Universal Intelligence.

How do we become connected when we do not feel that way?

We connect with the Divine Energy by surrendering our will to Universal Intelligence.  We do not have to do this alone.  When we towards towards the Divine, It turns towards us.  God will never insist, but only suggest.

It is identification with thought which makes us feel lonely.  When we are connected to All That Is, we can never feel alone.  In fact, we embrace our solitude because it assists with our connection to Universal Energy.

Let's surrender our thoughts and choose Presence.

Reality

Blue Thunder

We do not see reality for what it is because we see it through the filter of our conditioned beliefs.

When we look at someone or something, we see it through the prism of our gender identity, our social status, our ethnicity, our political leaning, our educational background and so on and so on. We see a stranger and we think about their color, age, looks, clothes.  We instantaneously make many judgments about each person we encounter.  We put them in a box, which is generally far from what is true.

We can never have true understanding when we don't see things as they are.  We can never experience the peace, love, joy and freedom that comes when we are in harmony with All That Is.

How do we remove the filter and see things as they are?  By seeing without judgment or belief.  By looking without labelling what we see.  By seeing without thought.  

When we look at the world without thought (i.e., through presence), we see things as they really are.  All the barriers that divide us from others fall away.  When we look at the world without judgment, we also see ourselves clearly for the first time.

We experience the peace, love and joy which is our natural state.  We realize that all of the labels and judgments we have been believing are not true.  They are merely reflections of society's conditioning. We stop behaving like programmed robots.  Our lives unfold with passion and excitement.

Everything is new.  Old habits fall away and new patterns emerge.  We vibrate at a higher level and attract people who have similar energy.  We are awake.

Let's see reality just as it is.

Self love

Venice Beach

It is a constant refrain that "we don't love ourselves." We have all heard that we can't love another until we learn to love ourselves.  But I could never figure out how to do this.  It made sense to me, but I didn't have the slightest idea how to go about it.  You can't just do it, if you don't feel it.

I now realize that self love is not something we can find, do, or achieve.  We do not need to figure out how to love ourselves.

We are already loved in a much larger way than we can ever imagine.  Love is what we are.  We just need to surrender to it.  When we turn our attention away from judgement, thought, and beliefs and towards the present moment, we are aligning ourselves with the Infinite Energy Source.  The Source is pure non-judgmental love.  When we surrender to it, we experience waves of Infinite Love.

We don't need to worry about self love and how we find it.  That just causes more stress and more self loathing when we are unsuccessful.  We need to peel away the layers of conditioned beliefs and judgements and experience our natural Selves.  Whenever we are in presence, we are bathed in Love. We feel it.  Others see it in us.  Our neuroses and anger fall away.

How do we stay in presence?  A daily practice of meditation is the best tool for breaking our addiction to compulsive thinking.

Let's surrender to Love.

Decisions

Notre Dame

Wouldn't it be incredibly relaxing if we never had to make another decision for the rest of our lives? Wouldn't it be terriic if we could sit in the back of the limo and be driven safely and comfortably to our destination?

When we have an important decision to make, we can weigh the pros and cons of each alternative. We can write the positives and negatives on a piece of paper and add them up and choose the one with the most positives and least negatives.  We can ponder the decision endlessly, stressing over whether we are indeed making the right decision with the information we have.

There is a better way to make decisions than through thought.

We do not have enough information to determine which decision is the best for us.  The road which seems the best may be the road where we are run over by an out of control car.  Since we have no idea what will happen to us tomorrow or even in the next moment, how can we make a rational decision?

We can make the best decisions by surrendering our decision making to Universal Intelligence. How do we do this?  By allowing decisions to be made by our intuition, our knowingness. Instead of weighing the pros and cons, we choose the alternative which makes us feel peaceful.  It can be difficult to differentiate between intuition and impulse.  An addict will always be compelled to choose the substance that he is addicted to.

Intuition is a tiny voice which requires stillness to be heard. If we are lost in compulsive thought, we will never hear that voice.  We can slow down our thoughts so that we can hear and feel the messages.  We can become still through meditation.

Lets stop making decisions and instead allow decisions to be made.