LESS EGO / MORE SOUL

How to be humble? As a musician and an artist I’ve been exploring how to perform my art in a way that allows me to fully self-express my work from a position of humility. Here are my observations on the journey…

To be humble is to do your best with a smile.

It’s to make yourself vulnerable as you share yourself with another.

It’s to share your art without holding back.

I hope you’ve witnessed a truly humble performance in your lifetime. The way it pulls at your heartstrings and invites you to melt into the present, knowing that this is it – the divine manifesting – right here, right NOW.

That is how I feel when I witness my favorite artists performing anyway.

Regardless, somehow I had adopted the twisted idea that being humble was more about being modest. That is, in the deluded sense that I should “dim my light”.

Don’t you be too good, clever or impressive now – you’ll make other people uncomfortable… seemed to be the implicit message.

It took me a while to figure it out, but I’ve decided that being humble is actually about shining your light REALLY bright. Full power. Burn baby burn.

After all, it is by being comfortable with oneself and our talents as individuals, that we are able to give others permission to develop their own talents and shine.

None of that “But who am I to be so shiny?” bullshit.

Whatever your talent, it is your gift to the world, and consequently, your responsibility to share it fully with others, as a reminder of the inherent divinity that lies within all of us.

Fear might try and restrain you, sure, but experience will tell you that fear is a liar with a convincing tongue.

Fearless self-development.

It’s an infinite spiral staircase, with no real beginning and no real end.

The infinite can be both overwhelming and liberating.

When recognized, it forces us to accept wherever it is on the staircase we are.

It brings us to stop ‘trying’ to get somewhere and instead, embrace the present moment.

Sometimes I feel like I’m going in circles as I find myself making the same “mistakes” over again. The scenery is the same and the incline is subtle. I wonder why life has brought me back here. “I thought I was beyond all this,” I say to myself, frustrated.

I forget that the journey is the destination.

A spiral is a symbol of evolution. It’s in our DNA. Sometimes we need to experience that which we are not in order to know that which we are. Often, this involves trying things over and over before we fully come to realise what serves us and what ultimately does not. Evolution is a process. It takes time and patience, but most of all, courage.

Courage, to expand and to move beyond that which is already illuminated.

Courage to question our conditioning and let go of turning to external sources for guidance.

Courage to surrender to the unknown.

Courage is where the ascension begins.

Society has its shortcuts. Most of the time we are conditioned to delight in the preferences of the majority; we are encouraged to fit in and to play it safe.

When we decide to climb the staircase of fearless self-development we become great explorers. We open to life and seek new experiences to reflect on. We also take notes as we discover what weakens and what strengthens our connection with our soul.

Eventually you find yourself ignoring the external triggers that led you away from your soul to begin with, recognizing them for what they are: just other people’s preferences.

This is the art of “self-discipline” – finding the confidence within to discriminate between your truth and others.

Now self-discipline can be quite an interesting topic. Often we tend to associate it with restraint/deprivation/sacrifice/missing out/ and saying “no” when what we really want to say is “yes”.

But, I’d like to offer an alternative view as defined be my friend Laura:

“Self-discipline arises in response to recognizing and desiring to seize your own divinity.”

Our consciousness is a mirror.

It reflects nothing more than the present state of life as things come and go continuously.

And just like a mirror, consciousness does not dance when you dance, nor cry, nor laugh, nor move as you do.

It is simply there, observing and reflecting our actions without attachment and without judgement.

Pure presence.

The thing I feared most happened. Now I laugh; it’s not so bad.

As humans we fear as we seek to avoid pain and suffering.

But pain is a powerful teacher, and suffering is optional.

In any given moment, we are faced with multiple possibilities of interpreting the present situation.

No-one and no-thing has the power to make our lives “good” or “bad” and we alone are responsible for our own happiness.

There is an old Huna saying: energy flows where attention goes.

It highlights the importance of staying in the present moment because if your thoughts go out the window and into the future, so does your energy. As a result one loses the moment as they are not present to reap the benefits.

Remember, you are experiencing now what you were desiring only moments before.

So enjoy it!

“Living in the future, always one step ahead of ourselves has led to a generation of disenchanted as we let life’s beautiful moments slip through our fingers because we are so busy thinking about “what comes next”. A continuous focus on performance has made living and loving mechanical. Alternately, many are dwelling on the past, surrounding themselves with barriers that keep them captive from the sweet surrender of truly living.”

- Uknown

I enjoy life and its many pleasures without guilt.

I surrender to pleasure.

I am present in this moment.
Now. Here. NOWHERE.

I can live with the uncertain, be spontaneous and surrender to the unknown. In this way I invite in the magick of life.

I realise the perfection in enough. I am satisfied with less. I enjoy all things in moderation.

I let go of my obsessions, the stories of my past.

I am present. I am interested in you. I am here to hear your story.

I laugh, I smile, I live, I love, I spread peace, love and light contagiously.

I am generous, whether you appreciate it or not.

I am the master of my mind, the conductor of my body, the friend of my soul.

I accept myself. I forgive myself. I love myself.

I am a passionate lover. I sing and I dance unashamedly as I express my joy.

I see through the maya, letting go of unnecessary thoughts.

I travel lightly, I tread lightly on this earth, honouring the source with each step.

I am open to all teachings of the collective wisdom of the universe.

I recognise failure as an illusion.

I am honest.

I am that.
I am I.
I am also you, he, she and it.
We are all one.

LESS HUMAN / MORE BEING

LESS EGO /  MORE SOUL

NAMASTE

Without the contrast the road would not be worth traveling…

Lost opportuinities are what they are. But, dont dwell on what is lost my child. The world is abundant. Chances will come again and again as the circle continues to turn.

Let go of your past; the stories you continue to hold on to. You place far to much meaning on your past.

You are now.
You are here.
You are nothing outside of this moment.

Knowing this, let go of your future, (if only for a moment).
The wishing, the wanting, the restless desire that keeps you from being happy now.
Be happy now.

Life is in the present moment. The sounds, imagery, sensations, tastes and smells that surround you. You are  everything and you are nothing; a wealth of possibilities.

Understand that there is no definitive you. You are the inexplainable; undefinable because you are not a static entity.  Rather, you are an ever changing, moving, (groovin’), evolving experiencer.

You are alive and you exist. That’s about as close as you will ever get to a comprehensive description of yourself.

Embrace this truth and the freedom it entails.

For if you are nothing and everything you have no name to live up to.

So let your guard down knowing that you simply are what you are.

“We may have been treated in childhood or in a relationship as if we were strange, different, or unacceptable. We may have been told that something was wrong with us. We can reframe that now as we work on clearing those atavistic critical messages: “I always had a unique path, I was always different because there is a special creativity in me that was clamoring to be activated in a hard-of-bearing world. The fact that I still feel like an outsider may be how this creative urge has remained alive in me. I am thankful for it and want to open myself to it now. And since I know how it feels to be excluded, may i not exclude others. Let my painful path be one that leads me to care about others.” The final two sentences are how the loving-kindness practice figures in.

Myths from which we cannot be redeemed can make childhood family gatherings unappealing. Do we stay away altogether? Our adult challenge is to maintain the connection but not become caught in a dependency. Our adult challenge is to be respectful but not obligated. How do we accomplish this? How do we let go of codependency with respect to our families of origin?”

When the Past is Present by David Racho

I escaped.
Went to the country.
Just me and my K9
Quiet…nature…space

I faced my fears
Of spiders and snakes
Of the world after dark
The sounds of creatures of the night
My fears of the unkown

I filled my pockets with ma-ca-dam-bia nuts
Beat my drum,
Danced barefoot in the forest…
Naked.

Read books,
Pondered life
Remembered:
There’s no need to
be
or do
ANYTHING.

Each night I created fire
“Man’s first magic”

Upon the damp grass,
Listening to music
I lay beneath the stary sky
In wonder and amusement

Thismorning I explored the outback like I was the only person alive…
Just me and the wind.
And so many butterflies…

The take home message
gifted by my island

Is that nothing really matters.

We give meaning to all the objects and experiences we come into contact with.
Much more meaning than any object or event truly deserves.

We label, categorize and justify, creating our reality.
But we are not objects.
Lest we forget.

We are consciousness

The space between objects.

The breath between thought.

The realized present moment.

Now.

We can’t define ourselves,
Hard as we try.
Nor should we.

“Words reduce reality to something the human mind can grasp, which isn’t very much.

As Buddhists say: the finger pointing to the moon is not the moon.

Likewise: “Thought [and word] can at best point to the truth, but it never is the truth.”

- A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle