It's Hard To Be God

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Being Top Gun

I once heard a teenager argue for his way. Like most young men he wanted freedom and according to him freedom meant doing it his way.

He used in justification the independent and winning spirit played by Tom Cruise in Top Gun. The pilots in that movie certainly liked to assert their independence. however, is it really a good illustration/ After all, know one hand s over a20 million dollar jet to self willed teenager? A pilot goes through hours of merciless military disciple and training and when, and only when, his skills are honed though controlled and structured training is he allowed behind the controls.
It is the same with a great musician. Hours of training, refining and practice have gone on by. A young musician at first weighs heavily on every note, then every second note, then every forth, until after years of practice the accent begins a phrase and then wings effortlessly note to note until a new accented phrase begins.
We in our independent world often look at the results of free thinkers and forget the years of hard work that have gone before.
One can think of the eclectic style of Picasso, and forget that he could also 'draw like an angel' = he chose his unique approach. He had sufficient skill to be able to let his expressive talents free reign.
Few overnight successes succeed over night. According to Prof. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi people who excel at achievement while being in the zone have usually refined a skill for over a decade. Perhaps some have developed the skill in an unrelated profession, even at home, but they have refined a skill.
Yet once refined, this skill has the capacity to enhance happiness, creativity, human fulfillment the state of "flow" - a state of heightened focus and immersion in activities such as art, play and work.
"When we are involved in [creativity], we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life" says Professor Csikszentmihalyi.
One can think of Paramahansa Yogananda’s “The Noble New” from Songs of the Soul. clearly, to attain the meditative skills of this master, one must develop great skills, and yet, disciplined as he and his disciples were, he calls out an octet in two quatrains

"Sing songs that none have sung,
Think thoughts that ne’er in brain have rung,
Walk in paths that none have trod,
Weep tears that none have shed for God,
Give peace to all to whom none other gave,
Claim him your own who's everywhere disclaimed.
Love all with love that none have felt, and brave
The battle of life with strength unchained.

Paramhansa Yogananda, 1893 - 1952

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Thats Weird

Religion is one of those intriguing parts of life that we love for our self and yet love to hate. It is blamed for everything, is accused wrongly of causing every ill under the sun, called a snare and a racquet – even wished nonexistent on occasion. Yet societies forced to live without it, at least openly, as in Communist Russia, have re-embraced it with abundant enthusiasm.

So what is it about the diverse religious traditions that draw us to seek greater meaning? There is something innate within us that wants to look beyond us. Yet there seems to be within religions there seems to be three components.

On one level there are the obvious rules that we would probably obey without Bible or Quran. After all, it makes sense that murder be banned, that stealing be frowned on and people’s property be protected.

Then there is the more challenging rules that make some sense when their context is explained. These are the religious laws that make sense in the original society that a sacred text is written. There are laws that make sense if you understand how the ancient priesthood was ran, then perhaps you may understand how religious principles have been extrapolated and applied in modern life.

Then there’s a third group. Rules that well – as much as theologians may speculate – just don’t seem to make much sense. They require you simply to say, well god made sense to this point so He must know what he wants me to do. Why a Jew or Muslim is not to eat pork is perhaps an example – there has been speculation about the difficulty of cooking pork in the past, but is that truly the reason? Why should a person not cook a goat in its mother’s milk? Is there a logical reason? Why stick the ash remains of a red heifer in a container of water and for years to come use that water for ritual purification?

Sometimes the reasons fit with deeper significant principles not easily understood. Sometimes its simply because the infinite One wants us to do something that gives us a connection to him. I have been asked to do something by G-d – wow! Me? I don’t deserve it? Yet He allows me that privilege to do something that He wants of me.

In reality, all commands are ways I can conect with Him. Sometimes they are dressed in more easilty recognised clothing. Sometimes the dressing is beyond our comprehension.

Every time I do it there is point in time when I - a speck of dust on a speck of dust rotating in giant universe can get as close as possible to that infinity that resides within all things in selfless service.

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Centre Calm

You are walking along a heavily path toward a city. Sadly, the path petered out into a multitude tracks. He noticed a white beaded man in deep reflection sitting under a tree.
“Hello, old man .... Which way to the city?”
“There’s two ways,“ he replies “the long short way and the short long way.”
“Ok the short long way?”
“That’s easy,” replies the old man “Walk down that gully and climb that hill and once your over the hill and your there...”
Nodding in gratitude you ask casually “ .. and the long short way?” to which the old sage knowingly points.

So down the gully over the hill and there is the huge city wall – and no gate. Trees and undergrowth block any progress along the city wall.
Disheartened you return, glare at the meditating old man and struggle down the second road. You have to make your way around obstacles, the path is confusing, but you can work it out. Around you go winding a distance yet soon the path widens joins a road and enters straight into the cities heart.

So it is in life that we can be caught up in the periphery of the spirit. We can take someone else’s directions – its easy to do. However, that takes us only to the periphery of the soul. To find our true soul we must do our own work – true we can be given the direction, but we must find our own way and search our own heart.

The disturbances of life throw us like the spinning platform at a playground. Round and round we go, speeding at the circles circumference, forces trying to pull us away from our balance. As we approach the centre, the distance travelled in each revolution is less, the centrifugal force is reduced, it becomes easier to hold on.
There is a point, infinitely small where the distance travelled is zero, where there is perfect calm. That point of the soul is a point in life where we are at peace. To a Jew it may be in the Sabbath service, to another a service in church or mosque. Nevertheless, the service is not a goal that stands alone.

These are tools designed to help us reconnect with God, to search our soul and find that infinitely minute spark of divinity that resides within awaiting the stillness within to flourish and re-ignite our passion for union with Him. Religion may take us to the periphery of divinity but we must take a hold of that mode of service to find our own way in through the door and into our heart.

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40 Love – Game, Set, Match and the love of the Game

Well it’s Wimbledon.
Again we get to sit enthralled as Federer, Nadal, the William sisters and whoever else serves, slices, lobs, grunts and groans their way in or out of the history books.

Of course, its also a game with a rather strange scoring method:

“15 love...”
“30 love....”
“40 love....”

Er and if you don’t follow tennis, love means ‘nothing’, ‘nil’, ‘zilch’. In other words they have 15 points and you ain’t scored yet.

Ouch!

So where does this strange meaning for the word ‘love’ come from?
Well according to the Oxford dictionary it is short for ‘to play the love of the game’. That is to play for nothing, not for money, not for honour, not to win.

Now, I ‘m one of those people who loves the ideas of history; especially beliefs and religion.

It is also interesting that in the Jewish tradition this week the Torah reading is about a contest that came down to ‘game, set and match’.

A chap called Korah decided to have it out with Moses. Korah was not just anyone, he was descendant of Levi of whom the priests and Levites descended, as did his cousins Moses and Aaron, Moses brother, the High Priest.

The problem was, according to the Bible, God wanted Aaron as High Priest, but Korah, along with 250 other ‘men of renown’, comes onto the scene breathing accusation and fury accusing Moses of nepotism.

He doesn’t come to check the facts no he’s out to let Moses have it.
"You have gone too far!” he tells Moses “For all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and The Lord is among them; why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of The Lord?" (Numbers 16:1-3). A bit far fetched since Moses had initially tried to get out of being leader.

for Moses it's love of the game...

Korah and company have time to recant, or front up and let God decide.

For these guys its win at all cost!

They proudly stick to their agenda, and so God opens up the earth and the story tells us they are swallowed alive by the earth.

Game, set, match.

OK that’s a rather sticky end….

Well what’s that got to do with Wimbledon or tennis?

Worship is a ‘game’ we need to play for the love of it. A game played for love of God, love of fellow man, love of the community.

Yes there are some who are leaders, organizers, priests, Rabbi’s, you name it … there are also some who help the old lady across the street. Worship is not to be played as an ego trip. It is a service.

Each person is part of the divine plan, no matter where he or she is or who he she is. We need to live this life in love rather than get swallowed up by the arguments of life.

Live life, love life, love God, love man …

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Rules, Rules, Rules

"For this commandment which I command you this day, is not concealed from you, nor is it far away It is not in heaven, that you should say, "Who will go up to heaven for us and fetch it for us, to tell [it] to us, so that we can fulfill it?" Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, "Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us and fetch it for us, to tell [it] to us, so that we can fulfill it?" Rather,[this] thing is very close to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can fulfill it."

Devarim (Deuteronomy) 30:11-14

We have a strange practice of making doing the right thing hard to do. Religions are masterful at it. The same religious that teach love can sink into depressing rules that repel the young from finding the joy of experience ones inner divinity as children of God.

The truth is that doing the right thing is really quiet simple. Naturally our heart, our mouth and our actions want to do the right thing. These 3 parts of our make-up – our thoughts, our words and actions, like organs of the divine soul work in perfect harmony when vested in following the leadings of the divine.

Of course our thoughts and our heart relate strongly. We often try to separate them. Yet we are emotional beings, and our heart as so often portrayed in literature is a symbol our emotional life which is best felt when we are in awe of this life we have been given and the divinity that has made it possible.

When I chose to obey the divine, I am not cowering in fear, rather I am in awe of the cause and sustainer of life as I experience it. The infinite of divinity is beyond me and I experience it as far as my limited grasp interacts with the immeasurable light around me.

In Hebrew the word for commandment, mitzvot, means more than commandment. It also means connection. When I do something for a person I admire I feel connected to Him, in the same way by choosing a moral life because it is the divine thing to do, allows me a sense of connection. To the infinite God it gives nothing – the infinite cannot change –however, I can change. I can be more like Him by my experience with Him. A healthy respect, a sense of awe, will prevent me from acting, even wanting to act, unjustly and encourage me to act in love.

It is this divine interplay of awe and love that motivates me and so the idea of obeying the commandments - that is obeying the rules - becomes easy. I desire to obey them – they become ‘near to me.’

True this requires an interplay of the three parts of our experience. Just as what I say or do with words in written form is important so is it important that I take in the words of instruction. Just as I impelled to act in kindness because of the love in my heart, I must meditate and understand the spirit and intent, the purpose of these dictates, lest I fall into mindless, heartless and unkind rule dominated control. Also I must act, my hands must actually do something to make the world a home where god would chose to reside.

Naturally we are a materialistic bunch - and indeed our material life is a reflection of our spiritual values – however it is as if the world and god are at different ends of the spectrum. We can simply just obey the rules and do so for the benefit of society or we can spend time and contemplate and develop an actual relationship with divinity. Perhaps that can be compared to taking a longer, but ultimately, more satisfying route. As we ponder on Him, and on the wonders of the material universe, we see interplay of qualities in balance that brings to the surface the naturally innate compassion and love that is within every human soul.

When we come in touch with divine spark that is seeking to reunite with the divine we can route its power into the service of this world. just as aflame, a burning gas reaching upward and outward, must be routed to a wick, our desire to be with Him and like Him, must be bound in service of Man and God both.

In the three Abrahamic Faiths there is a fundamental truth commonly expounded- you cannot love the invisible God if you do not love your fellow, and very visible, man.

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Making Our Neighbours Eyes Shine

Benjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it. However, this is also a lesson about life and possibilities. This is the story of realising that as a conductor his job is to empower an orchestra. That when he is doing his job well there is an orchestra looking back with shining eyes.

"Success is about how many shining eyes I have around me", says Zander.
If the yes lack tustre then perhaps it is time to ask "Who am I being that my childrens eyes are not shining?"

Then there is the story of the woman who survived Auschwitz. On the train to the camp she noiced her younger brother di not have his shoes and she chastised him. That ws the last thing she ever said to him.

After the war this woman vowered "I will never say anything that could not stand as the last thing I could say to that person."

Although a lesson in music, this video helps us understand that we have the power to bring lustre to the eyes of all around us.

"My job is is to awaken possibilities in other people" Lets make other peoples eyes shine. In business perhaps we can ask, as does success coach Tom Wood, "What do you do John, how can I help you?"

A simple question perhaps, yet a question that opens up the possibility of building a better world.

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Does Kabbalah Use Meditation?

Michael Laitman, Founder, Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Institute, explains internal observation form the kabbalistic perspective.

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Joseph and the Rabbinic-Coloured Psych Session

"And they took him and cast him into the pit;

now the pit was empty there was no water in it.”

- Gen 37:24.

“Now the pit was empty-there was no water in it: Since it says: “now the pit was empty,” do I not know that there was no water in it? For what purpose did the Torah write,

“there was no water in it” ? [To inform us that] there was no water in it,

but there were snakes and scorpions in it. “

-Shab. 22a, Chag. 3a

Sometimes life is the pits, you really are stuck in a hole. When you feel stressed out it can really pull you down, lower your sites and shrink the heart.

Joseph, the biblical character (you know: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat) gets thrown in a hole and left for dead by some pretty unpleasant brothers. OK he is rescued – one brother persuaded them to stick him in the hole rather than kill him – yet who says being sold as a slave is a great way to be saved?

Well you probably know that it all works out in the end. Yet being stuck in a pit to die is no one’s idea of fun.

An empty pit the Bible says. OK so it has no water in it. That’s the logical interpretation. But the Rabbi’s like to make things difficult. The reason we are told there was no water in it is ‘To inform us that there was no water in it, but there were snakes and scorpions in it”.

If that is not confusing enough we need remember that in each story there is a deep personal message. The Kabbalist’s tell us that the hole is the mind – the pit of our desperation.

So here we are stuck in the pit of life’s issues and we face issues with two types of dramas:

Frontal Attack: A snake has its venom up front You get bit and then the beginning of the mental process. Snake in Hebrew, nachash, also is related to the word for guess. I don’t know about you. But when I’m under attack I find it pretty easy to start trying to second guess the situation and if I’m not careful, end up making the problem worse, more anxious, with all the mind games and Shakespearean mental role play.

Attack from the rear: A scorpion has its sting in the tail. It is at the end of the mental process. Have you ever procrastinated because you think your assignment is not good enough and you keep putting it off?

It’s not enough to empty the pit of the mind of anxiety, else it will fill with even bigger snakes and scorpions. So how do we get rid of our snakes and scorpions? Simple: fill the pit with water - life giving, nourishing and sustaining water. No self respecting snake intends to hang around and drown.

What of the pit of our mind? Do we take control of our mind and keep it full with positive, uplifting and sustaining thoughtsand do we hill our lives with good? Or do we let every strange uninvited guest take over our aimless thinking processes? Do we fill our mind and make our life a place where the divine would choose to reside or do we let the demons of our past in habit our future?

Psalm 34: 14 suggests “Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.” You don’t have to be a Bible believer to recognize that doing good and filling the mind with good things is a better way to go.

The choice is ours. Fill our minds with water, grow a garden in our mind while we await our release or let the snakes and scorpions move in as we wallow in fear.

I know which choice I’m going to make.

What will you choose?

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Building Our Paradise

All of us at some time have been given a job that we don’t want to do. Perhaps our spouse wants us to help in the garden, to trim the hedges or mow the lawn. It could be an assignment from school is troubling our son, or perhaps our daughter is finding the transition into teenage life challenging. It is so easy to put things off into the idealised future.

There was a man I heard of who was given one last house to build. He didn’t want the job – he was approaching retirement – however, he was doing the job because a friend asked him to build it. He kept procrastinating, and finally gave in rushing its completion. The job was ok – it certainly wasn’t faulty, even good compared to some other tradesman standards, but it lacked the enthusiastic professionalism for which he was known. The man knew it too.

Eventually, he handed the keys over to his friend glad the job was over.
The friend handed the keys back.

“The house is yours. It’s my gift too you.”

If you were the builder would you suddenly exclaim: “Why didn’t you tell me? If I had known, I would have built stronger foundations, put in nicer lights, done .......” Because in truth our future is our own creation - our own building.

Some of us think that if we plod along in life doing no harm to others we will be rewarded with our Garden of Eden in heaven. The truth is our paradise will be built on the life and qualities we build now. If we have built much then our future will be strong. If our life is wasted well perhaps our paradise may be a little sparse, or we may find ourselves being asked “What have you done? You are full of excuses. Go back and try again and when you have lived the life you were sent down to earth to build then you can come back and see Me.”

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Our Environment: The Collective Soul

"Our environment consists of all of the stages in our development prior to where we are, which include everything that went before, and also the situation that we find ourselves in at the moment. So let’s just go over what our situation is in terms of where we came from.

In our original first state as we were created in the creation of a creature, the four phases of Direct Light, in this condition, there was one soul in relation to the Creator, with no boundaries on that connection. This is the collective soul, Adam ha Rishon, and actually, this is the state we still live in, except that we have lost any sensation of our true condition.

As this state was lowered through a number of phases by the force of development, which is the development of desire and also the development of the will to receive rather than the will to bestow, it arrived at the independent desire of the creature.

Now, this is reflected in our experience this way. This state is experienced rather as a kind of a matrix. A lattice that contains six hundred thousand independent parts, individual souls, all related to each other. The relationship, one to another, and the influence between them, is enormous. They are all interrelated actually, in the way that they were related in their original state, but the awareness of this relationship is lost to each of the individual parts.

Anything that is done in one of these parts—which is an individual desire—is felt through this interconnection in every other part. That is, there is an influence, an enormous influence that is felt throughout the entire system given the condition or the inner action of a desire of any one of these. So nothing inside here actually functions as an individual. We perceive that it does. This is our sensation of it as a result of the hiddenness of our real state from us.

And rather than feeling the interconnection, what we really feel is something more like this—that a person exists independent of others, and is a user and an exploiter of others. But really the condition that we feel is more like this (I’ll do it like that)—connected to nothing. But the truth is that this collective soul is our environment and it puts tremendous pressure on us in the form of our society—societal pressures; the way that everything in our environment affects us. So much of what we feel (and we’ll see how much) comes from this and not from this.

So, as you can see, we are influenced from all sides—inside and outside—and yet freedom is still achievable even in the material world, in this lifetime, and not in some other world as most religions say. But it takes a very special effort, and the effort is to rise above our nature."

- Kabbalah Revealed

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Butterfly

Cindy Ashton reminds us that even when we face medical adversity life is a butterfly full of possibilities.

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Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

"I'm dying and I am having fun - and I'm going to keep having fun every day I have left because there is no other way to play."

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," after explaining his cancer, Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals.
He speaks of his own childhood goals gives great advice on life, success and family.

Have a childhood vision

Help others

Loyalty is a two-way street

Never give up

Show gratitude

Stop complaining and work harder

Be good at something it makes you valuable

Find the best in everybody

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Does Life Have A Master Plan?

kabbalahtoday
Those pioneers in nature’s research wanted to know if nature actually had a goal, and if so, what humanity’s role might be in this master plan

It is no secret that Kabbalah did not begin with today’s Hollywood trendy hype. It has actually been around for thousands of years. When it first appeared, people were much closer to Nature than they are today. They felt an intimacy with Nature and nurtured their relationship with it.

In those days, they had little reason to be detached from Nature. They weren’t as self-centered and alienated from their natural environment as we are today. Indeed, at that time, humanity was an inseparable part of Nature and nurtured its intimacy with it.

In addition, humankind did not know enough about Nature to feel secure; instead, we were afraid of natural forces, which impelled us to relate to Nature as a force superior to our own.

Being intimate with Nature, on the one hand, and afraid of it, on the other hand, people aspired not only to learn about their surrounding world, but even more important, to determine what or who governed it.

In those early days, people couldn’t hide from Nature’s elements as they do today; they couldn’t avoid its hardships as we do in our “manmade” world. And most important, the fear of Nature, and at the same time, the closeness to it, urged many to search for and discover Nature’s plan for them, and coincidentally, for all of us.

Those pioneers in Nature’s research wanted to know if Nature actually had a goal, and if so, what humanity’s role might be in this Master Plan. Those individuals who received the highest level of knowledge, that of the Master Plan, are known as “Kabbalists.”

A unique individual among those pioneers was Abraham. When he discovered the Master Plan, he not only researched it in depth, but first and foremost taught it to others. He realized that the only guarantee against misery and fear was for people to fully understand Nature’s plan for them. And once he realized this, he spared no effort teaching whoever wished to learn. For this reason, Abraham became the first Kabbalist to start a dynasty of Kabbalah teachers: The most worthy students became the next generation of teachers, who then passed on the knowledge to the next generation of students.

Kabbalists refer to the designer of the Master Plan as “the Creator,” and to the Plan itself as “The Thought of Creation.” In other words, and this is important, when Kabbalists talk about Nature or Nature’s laws, they are talking about the Creator. And vise versa, when they are talking about the Creator, they are talking about Nature or Nature’s laws. These terms are synonymous.

To a Kabbalist, the term, “Creator,” does not signify a supernatural, distinct entity, but the next degree that a human being should reach when pursuing higher knowledge. The Hebrew word for Creator is Boreh, and contains two words: Bo (come) and Re’eh (see). Thus, the word, “Creator,” is a personal invitation to experience the spiritual world.

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Why Aren't We All Good Samaritans?

Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, asks '"why we aren't more compassionate more of the time?".

The sad thing is that our neurological system, our mirror neurons, are wired to desire to help - and yet we are often to self obsorbed to stop and help. Is charity purely an ego trip? What of speed dating? Do I talk about myself and give the other person full attention?.

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A Complaint Free World

In this video (in 3 parts)footage from Spring 2008 Will Bowen, the founder of A Complaint Free World, addresses an enthusiastic audience about the origins of his innovative 21 Day Challenge. To date millions of bracelets have been sent to over 90 countries around the world.
www.acomplaintfreeworld.org









There is some great info on a complaint free business, complaint free life and complaint free church.
so check out:

www.acomplaintfreeworld.org

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Escape

Escape eng from illuzia.net on Vimeo.

Originally, we were created as interconnected social beings and we cannot avoid this fact. Yet, the world we created is so uncomfortable, and it suppresses us so severely, that people are eager to run away from it.

However, when we run away from society, we begin to feel that we have no choice but to be in contact with it. So how can we find balance between these two poles? This situation in particular is what pushes a person to the next level of one’s existence. On that level we obtain knowledge on how to connect with others while keeping our individual uniqueness, and as such, the world becomes comfortable for us to live in.

This is what we need to learn: how to keep our ego and rise above it in order to connect with others. It doesn’t mean that the ego is suppressed in any way; we discover how to use our egoism correctly. Without losing inner freedom, a person rises above his/her ego and connects with everyone else. Together, they then make up one whole.

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Can You Change Your Destiny?

Film eng from illuzia.net on Vimeo.

Can you change your destiny? Besides the regular physiological genes in us, there are also informational genes. These informational genes emerge in us consecutively, in much the same way a computer behaves where at each given moment a new task is being resolved. I am the one who is in command of how to realize each new state that emerges in order to reach unity and balance with Nature.

If I am ready for this, and if I desire to realize my spiritual gene correctly and in the right direction, then there is no need for me to be hit by a car. I’ll be able to do this by performing some minor good act. However, when I start to deviate from this goal, thinking that I am doing well, but in fact I am not familiar with the real law and Nature’s true direction, then I immediately fall under the influence of a negative corrective force. It comes to me in the form of suffering and corrects me.

This is why we need to know the direction of Nature’s plan and follow it. Humanity’s main problem is that each person thinks s/he knows how to live and behave, and suppresses everyone accordingly. As a result, we only do harm to ourselves and to one another. We have evolved to a level where we are all completely interconnected and united, and this interconnectedness must be taken into consideration.

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At Ease With Yourself

We all want to live with ease. When you think about it we all have challenges, distractions, dramas and al these little bumps along the road to life that cause us dis-ease. So as soon as we feel discomfort we want relief, we want the externals to change or some outer influence to change our world.

Yet within us peace already exists. O it’s so easy to chase another toy- and when we grow up we have fancier toys, but toys they are.

If I buy a house i need to be given a key – once I own the house the keys is mine. I can choose not to use the key – I can bury it in the back yard if I like. Yet to get inside i need a key unique to the locks. If I want to seek my own place within I also must find a key unique to my soul. A key that allows me to know what it is I am truly looking for.

If I lack this access can I be truly happy? Without, I still exist – but do I have a happiness that is beyond the pure animal existence of life. Nearly every choice we make is part of our predetermined neurological patternings of life. So we try to stabilize our circumstances to calm our reflexive impulses. Yet there is one small part within that we can draw from within us whilst the world around us is changing.

It is this part within us that seeks by nature to be at peace, fulfilled and content. Yet it is as if a second soul within us is driving us like an animal driven by instincts. Perhaps we are driven to have things and we want more and soon we are trapped in the illusion that to be happy I must be rich.

Yet that yearning of the Divine, what in Hebrew may call the neshama or divine Soul, seeks more, a need to know, a certainty, a truth - not more endless questions. It seeks ‘truth vs. False’ which transcends ‘feels good vs. feels bad’.

In our digital world we have learned that we are energy and if our brains are triggered in certain ways our neurology can trigger physical responses as if we are experiencing a reality. Perhaps it is intellectually possible to reach a point where the virtual world could fill our needs. Or could it? Is it possible to electronically replace every one of the billions of neurological signals that feed our senses? Even if it were who wants to be linked to a supercomputer as in the movie the Matrix?

It is simpler to look within and to touch the soul already within us. To learn to refine our senses so that we can reach our inner soul and experience the reaity of the world around us without our emotional distortions.

A deep inner yearning must propel us forward to seek the world within. Where the labels of our societies must cease and our inner feelings take priority. In this the calm objective analyses of our subjective world. The feelings are not denied yet their truth is rationally assessed and refined.

This is not a passing fling into the world of escape, but for those who truly want it. It is not for all – we each must seek our own path. The discipline and the joyful experience of inner peace go hand in hand. You don’t just do it once and expect the world to change. Rather, like an air conditioner, the thermostat constantly readjusts according to the outer environment. The same is true of our inner world. This is not a matter of control – if we try to control our mind it naturally fights back and refuses to yield. Rather, we need to calmly monitor our responses.
Objective science rightly points out that a kiss does not heal a hurt. Yet any child knows that a kiss from mummy makes it all better. It works. The power of that subjective, psychosomatic, reality has made a change in our life. Hence it is a reality. There is great power in love and gratitude. Most however, grab at these phenomena piecemeal and never develop them to their full realised potential.

It is only possible if deep inside of me there is a thirst, a yearning , a craving to know what it is that I want to understand. What is my truth? What is my yearning?
It is to see the world entirely as a human. I can try to imagine it, however, I cannot experience the world as would a bat or a man from mars. Even if I tie webbing to my arms and hang upside down I only experience the world as a human trying to understand a bats world. Objective science in a similar way is forced to see the world from pre formulated scales and concepts. For it we of course are very grateful that the constant re classification of our world has made technology possible.

Yet to the soul within, to the divine neshama, this does not cut it. It does not satisfy my deep seeking for meaning. It is only if I have this need to seek that I am propelled to seek for the true meaning of my inner world.

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Yogi

Yoga eng from illuzia.net on Vimeo.

The world’s most prosperous countries also host the highest rates of depression, suicide, and drug addiction. There are people who cannot cope with the feelings of despair and emptiness, even when their lives are filled with all kinds of material abundance. At the same time, there are other people who are content while maintaining their lives with a minimum of material necessities. There are also some people from Europe who move to India or other places in the world, hoping to suppress their egoism to a lower level and learn to be satisfied with little.

The smaller is the ego, the easier is a person’s life. As a person descends to the animal level of existence, s/he feels better in life. However, the more a person develops, the more the ego increases, and the harder everything becomes. A highly developed level of egoism leads to the most pressing and basic questions about existence, and these questions demand answers. At every given moment (although we don’t realize it) each person chooses his/her own path of development. Humanity’s constant egoistic development forces us to look for the answer to an ambiguous question: “Why do I exist?”

The answer though, does not lie in tricks, drugs, or ways to calm ourselves down. The answer can be discovered only by discovering all the worlds and the entire scope in which we exist. Each person’s development will inevitably bring humanity to this final state. In other words, if we don’t connect with Nature’s general system, which controls our world, we will bring ourselves closer to a state that will be worse than death itself. This is why we need to start understanding and discovering this general picture of the world on a level that allows us to remain safe and comfortable.

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Personal Distraction Assistant

They call it convenience. Don’t miss a call, be available, have it when you want it. …..Er who are they kidding? Why do I want a call when I spend time with the love of my life? Or to be hassled by ceaseless ringing in deep meditation? Yet we are so conditioned we wait on our Persomal Distraction Acessories (PDA’s) as if they have some divine right to control our lives. Some are so use to the calls they are almost restless without them. I suppose it’s this generations equivalent to not feeling at ease unless the television is humming oin the background. I even heard a name for this sense of unease: Treo Attention Disorder (TAD).

So people go off to some course, spend a fortune in tuition fees and then spend the weekend excusing themselves to answer those ‘convenience’ calls that [revent us from getting the full benefit of the training.
Then there’s the bluetooth. Hey, when I went to school people were said to be mad if they talked to themselves! Now, are they smiling at me or someone on the other side of the planet?

But I have to take the call!
Really? Is it that life changing? Since when was not having a mobile a capital offence? The mobile culture is entirely voluntary and of course these little gadgets have their place. But who rules who here?

Who runs the show? Me? You? Or the barrage of telephone spam assaulting our intelligence?

There is a lot of talk about living in the now. Meditation teachers talk about Present Moment Awareness, Deepak Chopra speaks of being in the Gap.
The Chassidic writers also spoke of being true to the moment and being fully present. They used the word Penimiyut, which means “innerness”. The power of this idea is that at this moment – right now, what you are doing at this moment is the most important thing in the world.
Think about it. If what I am doing right now is the most important thing in the world , then is it worthy of me? If I truly appreciate the now, then is what I am doing truly the most important thing I could do right now?
Is that phone call really that important?

Penimiyut is perhaps the antidote for TAD.

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Enlightened Parent - Enlightened Child

Children need our simple, unadulterated egoless presence and attention.this allows us to meet a childs need and offer a home that is filled with a loving atmosphere. these few points may help:
Clarity of perception: Being quiet within allows you to experience the present moment, without any ego distortions. Hence you will see the true needs of the children at that given moment, rather than viewing the situation through the distorted lens of your own egoic concerns. All parents feel the pressures of the ego as they try to balance the demands of parenthood and life.It allows a parent to calmly recognise and attend to a childs need for love, rather than reacting egoistically at the inconvenience of a childs cry.,

100% Attention: distracted by the ego's need for recognition can easily trap us in the drama of life.etty drama of their own ego, This can be particularly true when teenage years awaken renewwed egoic demands of a youth. It is as if nothing will satsify the. Yet respopnding egically in kind only prevents the real message of the cry from being heard. Full attention, free of the ego's distortion, allows the child to sense they are being fully heard.An adult frightened of losing authority and a child scared of the confusuion that he or she may nit even fully admit too are poor co,panions. Learn to let go of the ego and listen in love.

This kind of attention will offer the child a platform to grow. in confidence and allow his or her talents to flow from the heart.

Avoid Irritation and Anger Living without ego distortion will automatically reduce this problem. I know my past parental failings were linked to my changing mood (aggravated by certain medicational side effects) and the pressures of life. For this reason developing the practice of mindfulness meditation can help us to learn to be quickly centred. Once we learn to be able to switch our states to our inner self, the neurolgical pattern can be called upon quickly to see things calmly before we respond. There is something in the old adage of stopping and counting to ten, taking a few breaths and relaxing.If the situation is so tense you cant relax, ask for a few minutes time out and keep to the promise to discuss the situation when you can think clearly.
The unfortunate response is to reactively defend our ego, teaching the fertile minds of our children that it s OK to burst forth in anger when tired or distressed

See reality not our image of the child: how may parents live their failed expectations though their children. The childs image is often a response to the fathers projections placed on him. Rather than calmly wirtnessing the childs growth, a man playing the role of father is infact projecting his ideals on the son. Parental influences are of course needed, the problen is that fear based projections inhibit the natural flowering of a childs uniqueness. The images and mind games of the ego take the child away from her natural self, and inhibit an honest self appraisal and self love, whchmay taint a childs own view of relationships. .

Many relationship conflicts are aided by being in a state of inner peace. Seeking inner calm before approaching a challenging relationship, be it via meditation or prayer,often seems to result in the other person sensing they have no need to be defensive. Perhaps we send out subtle non threatening signals that disarm the other. Even if the other os determine d to battle mindful awareness allows us to see the true nature of the persons fears. This allows us to deal with the ituation as it is and not as fear based egoism says that it should be.

Of course meditation is great for kids too and we will be discussing this in the next part of this series.

The Need To Know

Can you imagine stopping. Stopping everything and just breathing, having stopped all the distracting thoughts, the endless talk the inner debates. Can you imagine simply experiencing your breath and in that moment allowing the beauty of the world around you to flood over you. For in every moment of our life we experience that breath hand yet most of us never give it a second thought.
We perhaps have heard of people who have been given weeks to live. Suddenly, many experience a sense of clarity that gives life renewed focus and purpose. Every breath counts and is gratefully received and every second exploited to the maximum possible.
Most of us do not experience that clarity of purpose. Can that sense of clarity and desire be found without having to face death? Can we experience inner peace now?
We are all searching for something. Many look in ancient traditions, or the certainty of the past, While others seek only the novelty of the future. One seeks the thrill of the group while another seeks isolation hidden deep in the Himalayas. Each is looking for something - few ever can say they have stopped looking because they have found what it is they desire. Advertisers spend billions of dollars reminding us of our lack because they know we a re searching for a nebulous, poorly defined inner yearning. We all give it different names, depending on what it is we need in life. If our life is full of distress we search for peace, if we are alone perhaps we seek love, however I suggest that these are all words of a deeper spiritual yearning that transcends culture, education and social niceties. Rather it is experiential. We may curiously seek answers that are easily forgotten when a solution is found. That is why the search for inner peace transcends philosophy, because it is not about questions but the deep inner physical experience of certainty that mere head knowledge does not offer. It is felt within our being.
If I need something, perhaps I am dying of thirst, then only a drink can satisfy me even if I am so parched I cannot even express the words intellectually. If I am being rescued it would be logically absurd to say help me as the rescuer grabs hold of me and yet, the clarity of our need to remain alive overrides the logical need to beg.
In such times of extreme clarity of focus, social protocols go by the way side. Nothing is allowed to stand between us and its fulfillment. Only the real thing will do. If we need food, then pictures of fruit, or plastic models will not satisfy our hunger for fake food cannot satisfy the purpose of satiating our hunger. In the same way, unless we learn to experience out thirst for inner peace, love, tranquility, if we do not live filled with this wonderful feeling, we are like a plastic model shell that does not satisfy our purpose to exist. If we cannot experience e joy, we cannot truly share it with others. If we do not experience peace we cannot be a peace maker. It is in those moments of gratitude that we step onto the bridge between the mortal and the immortal, when we approach the divinity within us. We must feel that peace within.
This is not intellectual. It has been said that the more people intellectually search for 'Truth', the more untruthful the 'Truth ' becomes. If we are run by intellectual curiosity then we we will find one answer and then be led on to the next series of questions triggered by the next news broadcast or the next person we meet. Curiosity is transitory; the experience of our inner life has a sense of certainty about it. When we have come to inner knowledge then we know. There is no doubt. Yet like the person whose great thirst overrides any need to intellectualize his need for water, a person who has a need to know, a need that is so clear in himself, will find his inner self. A person who has been dying of thirst experiences a great inner gratitude when finally his thirst is quenched. He does not debate with the bearer of the water why he did not come earlier. He takes and is grateful that his life is saved, yet to someone without that need it is mere wooly nonsense, If I am nit thirsty I may argue over which cup a drink should be served in or whether I want ice or a squeeze of lime, but if I am extremely thirsty I care only for the water. In the same way, when I come to know my deepest needs I am no longer a puppet of protocols.
So many reject joy because of past hurts. Perhaps they reject the experience of their heart because of a failed romance. Yet who would reject a drink of water in the desert because they had nearly experienced death by dehydration?
We are meant to experience happiness, but I suggest true happiness transcends the illusory distractions of the latest technology or advertising. Early 2008 a group of people were offered wine in which they rated their preference. At the same time their brain functions were measured using brain imaging technology. What was expected was that people told they were drinking a highly expensive wine rated the drink as better. What is amazing is that the brain actually experienced a greater degree of pleasure even though everyone was drinking exactly the same wine.
Is happiness just an illusion then? Was the joy experienced by our near dead desert traveler an illusion? No. Likewise when we know ourselves the satisfaction obtained when our needs are met is just as real. We need the simplicity of a child so that we can approach our yearning for inner peace with simplicity. U is not complicated. Intellectualism would have us analyze every step. When we experience a yearning pointing us in a direction, do we overanalyze whether the yearning is valid or would it perhaps be best to ask what the yearning is pointing us too?
Like the person who facing death suddenly values every last breath we must take hold of every breath with intense gratitude. We must come to appreciate the singularity of this moment called now where all our burdens and social distractions melt away. Tomorrow is the greatest of illusions, for we are never guaranteed a tomorrow. I is in the now that the subtlety of this life becomes real to us.
For us to experience e this joyful reality, we must experience the thirst that impels us. To find inner peace we must experience a process of acknowledging ourselves and discovering our heart. This process is made possible by cultivating the field of our heart and allowing the seeds of our desire to grow to fruition. We must open our heart and embrace life.

The Seed of Desire

Inside of us are seeds of desire. Perhaps you desire wealth, prominence, recognition or simply peace of mind.
Yet for most of us these thoughts come and go as quickly as the millions of sensual experiences bombarding our body each day. If we don’t take a few moments reflection then much of our thought is deleted from our existence.
It is the same with desire.
A desire comes, we leave it to be choked out by the weeds of anxiety, to be left un watered, withering and dead on the hard busy road of an unreflective soul, or perhaps our desire is stolen away by the critical censure of a discouraging neighbor as a crow steals unattended food.
If the seed is to grow it must be cultivated, the soil prepared, the ground nourished and the seed watered. For our desires to grow our heart must be prepared. For every desire is a reflection of a greater desire that is truly us. Of course, we need to take care of the responsibilities of life, We cannot neglect the kids simply because we want peace of mind.
Searching within takes time, introspection cannot be rushed, it cannot set to someone else’s timetable. Rather we must take the time to reflect on our experience and contemplate the reality of our own experience.
There is no test or pass grade, only the realization of our own experiences.
The mind on the other hand loves questions and wants us to rush, to grab at the first suitable answer and move on. The heart is experiential and desires certainty. Hence the process of opening up to our inner truth should be progressive, reflective, regular, in fact daily. We must build on our own internal experiences discovering the beautiful garden within.
Just as a person must kn9ow how to count before they understand algebra, or understand algebra before they understand calculus, we must build our understanding until suddenly the new language of numbers opens up to us a new landscape of understanding. That which we once could not see suddenly becomes our reality as we understand.
We must learn to listen to the heart, to again feel. This is not a struggle or the concentrated isolation of monasticism, for it is a journey and we are meant to enjoy the ride. We move forward when the heart is ready and when it feels right. Enlightenment is ajourney and not some far off goal. It is an experience. It is when our experience coalesces into a simplicity that allows our heart to holistically know.
The heart does not want to think …. Yes but, if this is true, then ….? No, the heart wants certainty. It is based on experiential knowing of your own fundamental desire.
That desire must be quenched like a parching thirst in the desert, we must discover and feel the joy, love and happiness within.
What am I feeling? Am I truly intouch with my true inner feelings? Or do I allow distractions and the latest idea to take hold of my mind and trick me into thinking I desire something that an advertiser wants sold?
I once heard a story of a young boy and his school friends been invited to grandpa’s farm. Sunday morning, Grandpa offers them the produce of his far, with cream and ice-cream.
“do you like them?” asked the proud farmer.
“O yes” replied the boys, “what are they?”
“Strawberries.”
“There not strawberries!” retorted the boys “They don’t taste like a strawberry thick shake at McDonalds!”
For here is the proble3m. We often expect our experiences to match preconceived notions. The boys had an idea what strawberries should taste like. To enjoy the fruit properly they need to let go of their preconceptions. We need to observe what we experience and not allow it to be tainted by social and family expectations. We must let go of the story, the description, the label, because if we have assumptions of what happiness is we may dismiss it when we have it put in front of our face.
We must learn to again trust our feelings.
Sooner or later every one of our little constructions will be washed away by the reality of time. Time stops for no man and as we sit at the end of our life what will be left but my feelings. Will they be feelings of joy? Will I have followed my heart or will I look back and find I have followed someone else’s script.
Everyone wants to tell you what to do, who to be, what must be done. Will I listen to my heart or to others? Will I embrace the fundamental thirst for every breath. Will I take hold of this opportunity called life and feel deep inner joy? This life should mean something and we need a way to access the heart to experience its meaning. We need to experience the self, the life that until we opened our heart we never knew existed.
When we come in touch with the me that is within, and love that me unconditionally then we can live in the heaven within.
It is not dependent on external, conditional, acceptance or on the hope of a future world. Rather, the process of experiencing our inner world offers to us a joy that can be had regardless of our circumstances.
True joy, peace, fulfillment and success come from within, a deep inner satisfaction.
Most believe that there are certain requirements to be met if our life is to be satisfied. Needs must be met. Desires sustained. Yes we must fulfil our responsibilities and enjoy the friuit of our labour. But what if all you have attained was suddenly taken from you? our purpose is fulfilled then within we have lost nothing.
This requires a lot of self understanding and relearning of our heart. It does not take a lot of time, although the unfolding of the heart is not to be rushed. It doe not require special circumstances, although we need to progressively open up our heart. Slowly the scene will open to us and suddenly the light bulb will light up.
Circumstances in life may change, and the definition of external success will change. Will we experience the deep inner unchangeable joy of our heart or be ever chasing the culturally conditioned messages of advertisers?
If our happiness is dependent on external elements then if those things change, and they will, then whar will happen to our happiness? If our happiness is built on the true foundation of a revealed heart then its foundation is sure. If not then we will come to the end of our life and ask “is this all there is?” Will we be left unsatisfied desiring more?
We can only eat so much cake. The first peace is great, the second nice but if we keep going we end up sick.
The joy of the heart is not like that. For true joy can be had again and again. The more joy we have the better it gets.
The mind wants to play tricks with us. It is curious and quickly wants to get an answer and search no further.
The heart wants to experience peace and bit by bit, step by step, as we learn to listen to it, it will open to us a beautiful garden within that is unique to each of us and which no one else can share.
In this search the seed of desire will flourish, cultivated and watered by our own reflection, the seed of desire will grow.