LESS EGO / MORE SOUL

People will give up almost anything to become enlightened. Anything that is, except the idea that they are not yet enlightened.

We were born enlightened. And then we chose to forget.

Why? Because we love a challenge; love a game; love an opportunity to explore – it makes us feel alive.

Many of us like the idea of becoming enlightened, however, as alluring as it may be, it is also deathly frightening.

There is an old well-known tale about a man who approaches a Zen Master and asks to be shown the path to enlightenment.

“Okay, follow me,” the Master replies, and leads the man to a nearby river and into the water.

Without warning the Master pushes the man’s head beneath the rushing river and holds it there as he struggles violently for his life. Just before he loses consciousness the Master pulls the man up, gasping for air.

“When you want to be enlightened as badly as you want to take your next breath, just now, comeback and see me,” says the Master.

This parable poses the question: Do you really yearn to become enlightened more than life itself?

A friend of mine pointed out in a conversation over the weekend, that the more we become ‘enlightened’ the more vulnerable we are to becoming depressed. I see his point. After all, it can be a pretty lonely path to wander, where one is often judged and misunderstood. And, as one begins to see through the illusions that our current society is based upon, we are often left with an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness.

Another aspect of the division that also holds us back is our own reluctance to claim our own personal power. After all, it is not the fear of failure that scares our ego most – but often, the fear of success. For then who would we be? What would we seek? And what kind of overwhelming responsibility would the claiming of our own infinite power entail?

This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t seek personal or spiritual growth; but the caveat here is that many seem to view enlightenment as the final destination. Following this view, we might find ourselves projecting on to it our hopes that ‘if only I were enlightened, I could really be a good person and be happy’.

Once we stop viewing enlightenment in this way, we can begin to enjoy the journey of self-exploration as it should be – without obligation or ambition.

And the best part is, there is no need to ‘give up’ anything. After all, true enlightenment does not come from depriving ourselves from our vices, but from letting go of that which no longer serves you when the time is right.

The difference here is that you will “set aside these things as a child sets aside toys. Not because they are unworthy, but because you have outgrown them.”

In the meantime, try not to judge yourself for taking pleasure in the material world.

You’re only human after all.

People often ask me what K.A.P.L.O. stands for.

Time to reaveal the secret…

Each letter corresponds to the 5 steps of manifestation:

K  - Know it

A – Accept it

P – Praise it

L – Love it

and finally,

O – Own it

People often make the mistake in manifesting of ‘asking’ for something. Or worse still, they put a time limit on their hearts desire and give up when it doesn’t appear within such boundries.

The thing about manifestation is that it does not work within our invented perceptions of time and space.

And to ‘ask’ is to voice your uncertainty of the outcome (just as like attracts like, so does fear attract fear).

So use K.A.P.L.O. as a guide.

Say to yourself:

I know ____ is coming…I accept ____ into my reality…I praise ____, it is a beautiful thing…I love ____ – it brings me joy! I own ___ – and visualize yourself engaging with the desired. Repeat the process and when you feel it is time, let go of your fixation, knowing it will find its way to you eventually.

Did you know?

Hemp just so happens to be one of the most useful, stongest, toughest, longest-lasting materials on earth.

“You cannot produce a a better fiber for clothes, a stronger substance for ropes, and easier-to-grow-and-harvest source for pulp.

“We cut down hundreds of thousands of trees per year to give ourselves Sunday papers, so that we can read about the decimation of the world’s forests. Hemp could provide us with millions of Sunday papers without cutting down one tree. Indeed it could substitute for so many resource materials, at one-tenth of the cost! And that is the catch. Somebody loses money if this miraculous plant – which also has extraordinary medicinal properties, incidentally – is allowed to be grown. That is why marijuana is illegal…” (Neal Donald Walsch)

1 acre of corn = 1000 barrels of bio-diesel. Whereas,1 acre of hemp = 30,000 barrels of bio-diesel. FACT.

1 acre of hemp = 5 acres of wooded forest to make paper. FACT.

Some more facts about hemp:

• “Back in the early days Levis made their jeans from hemp, and when you couldn’t patch up your jeans or clothes any more they would recycle it into paper.”
• “If you get hemp paper and you rip it – get it wet and it bonds back together like it was never wet!”
• Benjamin Franklin who created the first newspaper printed it on hemp paper.
• The last 3 presidents elected in America admitted to smoking pot. Obama, Bush and Clinton.
• Canada and14 states in the USA have legalized marijuana.
• For vegetarians in particular, hemp is an amazing source of protein, essential fatty acids and amino acids. Yet, it is not yet made legally available for purchase in Australia. In America, you can buy hemp seeds (to sprinkle on salads for  a protein boost), hemp oil (for cooking) and hemp milk (a very nutritious dairy alternative). It can also be used in baking and to make a special tea and leaves can be eaten fresh in salads. “It’s single healthiest thing we can eat and yet, it’s illegal to grow”.
• All jokes aside, marijuana also has some amazing medicinal properties.
• Hemp oil can also be used to relieve eczema with its anti-inflammatory properties.
• “Thomas Jefferson the fourth US president on the $20 bill risked his life and the life of his service men smuggling hemp seeds from China. He wrote in his diaries that some of his fondest memories were smoking hemp on his veranda starring out to the sunset.”

Though the government tries it’s best to keep these truths under wraps, if you’re interested seek & ye shall find.

And it’s not all about the threat of substance abuse – the difference between Marijuana and Hemp is in the way it’s cultivated. It all depends on THC levels.

Some quick links continuing this discussion:

The Earth Diet – Day148
The Earth Diet – Day 114
The Difference Between Hemp and Marijuana
Wikipedia – Canabis
Wikipedia – Marijuana
Wikipedia – Hashish
Wikipedia – Hemp
Hemp For Victory
IMDB
The Economic Expert

‘Normal’ means something usually done. ‘Natural’ is how you are when you’re not trying to be “normal”! Natural and normal are not the same thing. In any given moment you can do what you normally do, or you can do what comes naturally. I tell you this: Nothing is more natural than love. If you act lovingly, you will be acting naturally. If you react fearfully, resentful, angrily, you may be acting normally, but you will never be acting naturally.

Conversations With God, Book II pg.19

I wanna act naturally.

Screw normalcy!

Be true to thyself.

I remember once, in primary school on a school camp. There was a black out and a lot of the other kids started to cry because they were scared in the dark.

I wasn’t afraid, but I was a little confused at their reactions. To fit in I licked my hands and rubbed my eyes hoping that when the lights came back on it would look like I had been crying too. I wanted to appear “normal” so I pretended to be scared.

How absurd!

Yet to fit in is to act normal.  Being  honest and acting upon your own internal desires, on the other hand, often implies being different. And while for some people and in some situations, being different is the goal, in the mundane day-to-day life being different is often considered embarrassing.

In my life now though, I’m pushing to “embarrass myself”. Because I’ve found that doing what I want to do, acting how I want to act, is far more satisfying than the facade of fitting in…

“Once there was a rock filled with countless atoms, protons, neutrons, and subatomic particles of matter.

These particles were racing around continually, in a pattern, each particle going from “here” to “there” and taking “time” to do so, yet going so fast that the Rock itself seemed to move not at all.

It just was. There it lay drinking in the sun, soaking up the rain, and moving not at all.

“What’s this, inside of me, that is moving?” the Rock asked?

“It is you,” said a voice from afar.

“Me?” replied the Rock. “Why, that’s impossible. I am not moving at all. Anyone can see that.”

“Yes, from a distance,” the Voice agreed. ”From way over here you do look as if you are solid, still, not moving. But when I come closer – when I look very closely at what is actually happening — I see that everything that comprises What You Are is moving. It is moving at incredible speed through time and space in a particular pattern which creates You as the thing called “Rock” And so, you are like magic! You are moving and not moving at the same time.”

“But,” asked the Rock, “which, then is the illusion? The oneness, the stillness, of the Rock, or the separateness and the movement of it’s parts?”

To which the voice replied, “Which, then is the illusion, The oneness, the stillness, of God? Or the separateness and movement of its parts?”

+++

Life is a series of minute, incredibly rapid movements. These movements do not affect at all the immobility and the Beingness of Everything That Is. Yet, just as with the atoms of the rock, it is the movement which is creating the stillness, right before your eyes.

From a distance, there is no separateness. There cannot be, for All That Is  is All There Is and there is nothing else.

From the limited perspective with which you view All That Is, you see yourself as separate and apart, not one unmovable being, but many, many beings, constantly in motion.

Both observations are accurate.

Both realities are “real”.

The Parable of the Rock – Conversations with God book III, pg. 63

“The more we have, the more bored we get.” Mad Men Season 3

Something I have been turning over in my mind a lot lately is our Western concept of ‘enough’.

I feel the mundane world loves to have more & generally more is considered better… What an interesting illusion we have created for ourselves…And I’ll admit I play along.

But every now and again, I come face to face with the truth.

That more is not always better.

That enough is what we really yearn for.

Enough.

It’s the point of satisfaction before greed sets in.

It’s when you realize that you don’t need anything more to make you happy.

You are content. Fulfilled. Satisfied.

Any more than, wont do you any favors. It’s just overkill.

Sometimes it’s a struggle to remember that you can have too much of a good thing; that less really is more. I observe myself overloading my body with too much. I watch a greedy ego take over my mind from time to time and I hate it. It’s toxic and it’s not really me. I know that.

I hate playing watchdog –  caring if my neighbor gets that little bit extra like it means I’m less worthy.

I hate re-acting to fear-based thoughts as opposed to choosing my actions and acting with love.

And so I’m desperately trying to shake the belief that “more is better”.

After over a decade of living in a world where we are constantly told that “there is not enough (for everyone) so you better get your hands on as much as you can (which is often more than enough for a single soul)…I can find a million ways to superficially justify why more would be better.

I can only conclude that justification is pretty darn useless when you are trying to connect with what is intrinsic and internal.

“Live simply so that you may simply live.” Conversations With God book 1.

“The purpose of having a relationship is not to have someone who might complete you, but to have another with whom you might share your completeness.

You have no need for another in order for you to experience – completely – who you are; and yet without another you are nothing.”

Conversations With God Book 1 p.123

Emotions are a tricky aspect of being human. They are the language of the soul; subtle, elusive and cryptic. Often they defy the rationality of the mind and the logic of our society. While at times this can be scary and confusing we need to learn to embrace our emotions because they are the key to our happiness and understanding ourselves fully.

In a book I’ve been reading lately, Dr Elisabeth Kubler-Ross touches on the five “natural” emotions. These are defined as: Grief, Anger, Envy, Fear and Love.

I know what your thinking. “Really? But only one of those emotions seems to be positive!” – it caught me off-guard too. But you have to remember there is no “good” or “bad” – especially when it comes to emotions. You just feel what you feel.

When you scratch the surface to explore the full depth and purpose of these emotions, you might just come to see them a little more clearly for what they are – beautiful tools for cultivating one’s personal development.

After all, it is the repression of these emotions that produces the negative consequences we often wrongly associate to them.

So lets dive in and explore this underworld of emotions:

1. GRIEF
Grief is a natural emotion. It allows you to say goodbye when you don’t want to say goodbye; to express the beauty of the transition between attachment and non-attachment. It allows you to push out and expel the sadness within you when you experience any kind of loss.

Embrace it and feel it fully because when grief is suppressed it becomes chronic depression – a very unnatural emotion.

2. ANGER
Anger is a natural emotion. It allows you to distinguish what you don’t want from what you do. Expressing anger isn’t about yelling, kicking, screaming or throwing a tantrum; it’s about saying “no thank you” and providing others with clear feedback as to how they could grow. In this way, it is a powerful ingredient in promoting intimacy throughout relationships.

Embrace it and feel it fully because when anger is suppressed it becomes rage – a very unnatural emotion.

3. ENVY
Envy is a natural emotion. It makes you want to try again and try harder; to continue striving until you succeed. In short, it helps you to figure out what you want in life and encourages you to claim your full potential.

Embrace it and feel it fully because when envy is suppressed it becomes jealousy and insecurity – both very unnatural emotions.

4. FEAR
Fear is a natural emotion. It offers contrast, risk and challenge, making the game of life that little bit more interesting. It also provides us with a degree of caution to keep the body alive. Essentially it is an outgrowth of love; love of the self.

Embrace it and feel it fully because when fear is suppressed it becomes anxiety, panic and worry – all very unnatural emotions.

5. LOVE
Love is a natural emotion. It is our way of saying thank you and expressing our gratitude for our existence. It is the essence of life and should be expressed without condition, limitation, inhibition or embarrassment.

Embrace it and feel it fully because when love is suppressed it becomes possessiveness – a very unnatural emotion.

I just wanted to put out there a collection of thoughts (some my own, some others) that I feel are really great reminders of how life should be lived… Enjoy.

The questions that should always be asked:

• What is the highest choice?
• What did you learn today?
• What did that person teach you?

“Our lives are made rich by reaching out to others, not by surrounding ourselves with a boundary of no.” (Pleasure, an Almanac for the Heart)

Live with confidence and joy – When life gets hard, laugh and smile.

Listen to your heart, let go, allow the universe to guide you and enjoy the dignity in walking away. (Pleasure, an Almanac for the Heart)

Act with spontaneous, joyous generosity, aim to never say a bad thing about another. (Pleasure, an Almanac for the Heart)

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent” – Eleanor Rosevelt

Surround yourself by people who make you feel good

“To be truly free, you have to forget about what others think of you” (Pleasure, an Almanac for the Heart)

Want people. Don’t need them.

Celebrate sexuality freely; everything you do should be for you. Sex is not dirty.

To live life without expectation – without the need for specific results is freedom. All goods can be yours and all goods belong to the world. Nothing is ever lost. (Neale Donald Walsch – CWG) 

“You miss 100 percent of the shots that you don’t take.” Fear nothing. (Bob Isherwood)

You underestimate yourself, your beauty, your image to the world.

Speak with confidence – articulate your words, stand tall and follow your instincts. Give people more to read. If you are true to yourself, that is able to speak your personal truths “quietly but clearly”, even if people do not agree with you, they will respect and admire your honesty and openness.

Its OKAY to change your mind.

suffering is always the result of what we feel we have lost. (Neal Donald Walsch CWG)

Share your ideas with generosity & warmth, express yourself, use every opportunity to create and display to the world Who You Are. Never regret or feel guilty. Put yourself out there without fear of other’s reaction. You don’t need to “be” anything and you don’t need to justify your actions.

For, can you think of a better way to live?