Transformation

Six Feet From the Truth

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If you are a white person and you believe you are not a racist, that you were not conditioned in some way by your past or you overcame your conditioning about race, then the words on this image should ring true.

Can you know what someone else or another race has experienced in their lives without having experienced it for yourself? You cannot. You can only imagine you do. You only have to look at your own life and troubles to know this is true.

You can acquire more knowledge, but knowledge does not translate to experience. However, it will increase understanding, empathy, and compassion, which is sorely needed now. Therefore, educate yourself, especially about white privilege. Do not just think you already know what this is, because too many only ignorantly think they do, and many more do not believe it exists.

We must stand up for what is right, for human decency, to look with our eyes at the truth and see. To feel in our hearts what we know to be morally wrong.

To allow any group or individuals actions such as looting and burning to sway our support for the greater good is a lapse in judgment and moral character because who is to say that you might not be next because of your skin color, beliefs, or religion. Do not think you are not vulnerable because of your white privilege.

One could say, it is always easier to social distance and maintain six feet of ignorance, than it is to risk getting up close and seeing the truth.

You Are More Than a Survivor

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Despite everything that has happened to you in this life, including everything that you THINK you did wrong, you survived it all. Take that in and be with it. You are a survivor! Remember that truth when times feel difficult. Know that you are more than a survivor, that you can come out on the other side and thrive.

You are still here to talk about every event, at least the ones you remember. Just how many do you remember anyway? I raise this question because I guarantee that you have forgotten many more difficult times than you remember. There is value in noticing this: they are gone from your present experience and no longer disturb your state. What has power over you right now that you can see or feel in your life?

Notice that everything in personhood comes and goes. That includes the good, the bad, and yes, even what you thought was insurmountable.

The mind may keep ruminating over an issue, and I would ask, is this something that needs your attention or not? It does not matter if it happened five minutes or five decades ago, because once you identify with it in the present, it has the same power to distract you and change your state.

How much of your time is spent thinking about unnecessary things while overlooking what is necessary? You have a choice in these moments to breakdown or breakthrough! Which will you choose?

How many of your challenges can you look back at and see that they taught you something valuable? That the experience empowered you and put your life on a completely different trajectory for the better? If this did not happen, then look to see if you have an unresolved issue, or perhaps you are continuing to ruminate over something that is no longer an issue, and you need to let it go.

I repeat, know you are a powerful person. Recognize that you are a survivor, but you are more than that. Please remember that no matter what is happening in your life or how you feel about it today, it will shift, it will change, because nothing in your life of personhood lasts forever.

Short and Sweet #56 – Irritation

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Most of us have experienced irritation for one reason or another in our life. This irritation is a clue about our unconscious programming. Remember, everything that irritates us can lead us to a better understanding of ourselves. When we watch our reactions, responses, feelings, and thoughts about other people and events, we are given an opportunity to make a shift in our field of awareness. This shift allows us to let go of our unconscious programming, which releases the behaviors that no longer serve us.

First, make a decision that this is your intention, then begin to notice each time you become irritated. Sometimes you may not see your irritation until after the fact, and that is OK. The important thing is the recognition of the irritation, not when you notice it. As you continue this practice, you will eventually feel or hear your irritation right when it happens.

Irritation will make itself known to you through your thoughts, a feeling or a sensation in your body. Once you become aware, notice or remember what was said or happened to make you irritated.

Remember this exercise is not about beating yourself up because of your behavior, you are already doing this each time you get irritated. Irritation throws your body into an uncomfortable state, changing your mood, blood pressure, heart rate, and many other physiological changes occur. This is about letting go, just notice, reset your intention to notice your next irritation and move on. Over time, you will let go of the energetic pattern (behavior), and your True Self will rise to the surface leaving you more relaxed and peaceful.

Original post 3-26-2014 edited and reposted 12-10-2018

Finding the Middle

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Most things that happen in life are not good or bad; they are good and bad. Where do you put your attention? Do you have enough awareness to see them both? Do you only see the bad, which leaves you anxious, angry or depressed? On the other hand, do you focus only on the good, convincing yourself that nothing is wrong? Seeing life either way will only lead to suffering and the continued loss of our humanity.

Remember life is not about getting, it is about giving. Too many have forgotten this, and have fallen into a trance. Their focus is too narrow, and they can only see the good or the bad. This forgetfulness creates a more significant disparity between those who have and those who don’t, leaving our world in war, hunger, poverty, and turmoil.

We must awaken from our trance, or we will continue to spiral down. Our lost humanity will not just be something we gasp at in the news; it will become so regular that we will grow numb to our inhumanity.  This has already begun to happen in the name of peace and safety. Can you see it?

Will we find a way to wake up or will we continue down our current path? Each one of us must ask this question of ourselves. We must be willing to take an honest look at our beliefs and perceptions so that we can uncover the truth. Otherwise, we will continue to parrot our conditioned views and judgments out into the world, and that will only strengthen what we most dislike about it.

When we can stay in the middle, a balanced life is lived, and happiness becomes the norm. We learn to appreciate the good and have the strength to take action to improve the bad. Can we find the middle or will we continue to fight for what we think is ours and ours alone?

How to Change the World

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The next time you get frustrated, angry or upset with another person for his or her actions or words, remember that we are all doing the best we can in every moment; this is a fact.

Remembering this fact is not always easy to do because we will react to our thoughts, which are influenced by our conditioning. Past conditioning can cause our response to be inappropriate or disproportionate to what is happening. Our thoughts will tell us that it is the other person’s fault that we feel this way, but in truth, no one’s action or words alone have the power to upset us. We do that all on our own.

Think back to a time when your response to what someone did or said was inappropriate, or you overreacted. Also, notice if your reply was out of character or went against how you see yourself. Noticing this will allow you to see that there is more going on here than just what the other person did. You are witnessing your conditioning in action.

It was your thoughts and perceptions about the person’s words or actions, which evolved from your conditioning that generated your response. These misleading thoughts will make it difficult for you to respond appropriately until you let go of your conditioning.

You cannot think your way into reconnecting with your True-Self, you need to let go of who you have become for this to happen, to do that you have to become aware of your conditioning. How do you become aware of your conditioning? By paying more attention to your thoughts and the actions that arise out of those thoughts.

The next time a loved one, friend or co-worker is treating you in a way that makes you feel irritated, see if you can notice what you are thinking. In the beginning, you may not be able to hear your thoughts or notice your behavior until after the fact; know that this is okay. By paying more attention to your thoughts during or even after the event, you will begin to see your conditioning.

Know that every person who acts poorly towards you is suffering in some way. With this new understanding, release your suffering and conditioning, by being compassionate towards them. Use your personal experience to draw from; can you remember a time when you were angry or rude to someone? Don’t you wish that you had received compassion and love and not their displeasure with your behavior?

Remember the past is only a predictor of the future when we are not paying attention and then taking action from what we learn. Pay attention to your thoughts and actions. Release your conditioning and reconnect with your True-Self, this is our highest calling, because when we change from within the world outside us will also change.

Wake Up! Wake Up! Wake Up!

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I feel your pain and suffering. Let it go! I see your perfection and infinite beauty. Wake up to it! I understand how lost and lonely you think you are and yet I am here for you always. Your thoughts are lying to you, and you only have to wake up to this fact.

Because I love you, I tell you that you only have to want to feel your True-Self again and you will. Your continued attentive nature of seeing the truth will reconnect you to your True-Self because it has never left you. It is there to guide you, and you only need to stop believing every word the False-Self tells you. Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! You were never lost, just dreaming that you were. Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! I am here gently nudging you every moment of every day. Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!

What Will Be the Legacy of Your Life

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We will never have what many call freedom is in this life if we do not begin to listen, hear each other’s truth, and then be willing to compromise. Thinking that freedom only comes in one size and shape, being rigid about what we believe to be true, and not willing to let go, will only lead to personal heartache and a world full of mistrust. You can feel and see this already in today’s world. Also, living this way will only contribute to the problems that future generations have to face. These problems arise so slowly; over generations that they are overlooked by many during their lifetime.

By bringing more attention to our personal thoughts and actions, we open the doorway to awakening, to our conditioning, and the false beliefs that separate us. This allows real freedom to unfold because as long as we are burdened by our negative thinking, what we perceive as freedom such as, political, geographical or financial is an illusion. Real freedom comes from self-freedom.

We are more alike than our own thoughts allow us to see and it is time that we discover this and begin to let go of our old beliefs, patterns, and thinking. We must be willing look for the middle ground, be all-inclusive by expressing the true meaning of love and stop creating more division by holding our ground, thinking that our way is the only way. When we do this, we create separation between the self and our soul, and this leads to more division in the world. We cling to like-minded people, locking the old patterns in even more profoundly and never experiencing the real beauty of this diverse world we live in.

When someone becomes lost in his or her own beliefs and desires, he or she will use the division in our society to create more separation, hate, and anger. The reality is when we break down the walls of separation and come together nothing is insurmountable. Our greatest power and gifts come from our connection to one another, and our biggest danger lies in separation, which only causes devastation.

We lay a brick on the foundation of our self-destruction every time we focus on our differences. We will fulfill this prophecy if we do not come together for the common good of every person on this planet.

The process of questioning our beliefs, paying attention to our thoughts and actions will only bring more balance, joy, and peace into our lives. Peace does not arise out of getting what we want, peace comes first, from within, and then and only then do we reach fulfillment because peace is the source of fulfillment.

Take a moment to contemplate what love really means and then see if your beliefs about other people and this world align with that meaning. Let any conditioning from society, family, religion, politics go for a moment. Then ask yourself, if I come from love, how will my thoughts and actions be different?

When we let go of our fear about what might happen and open our hearts to everyone, become vulnerable and embrace empathy we can change the world. If we allow our fear to be the foundation for our choices, we will self-destruct. What decision will you make, what kind of world will you leave behind for future generations? What will be the legacy of your life?

 

Some Things to Ponder

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I was recently asked the following question on a post, titled Humanity’s Most Important Discovery.

“Whenever you mention « True Self » I think « Soul [as opposed to Ego] ». Are they synonymous to you also?”

I quickly responded with a yes, but I realized what a great question it was, and it made me pause. I took some time to contemplate my answer and instead of just using my automatic response, I realized it was an opportunity to share some important things.

I hope you find the following helpful in some way.

To say the Soul and the True-Self are similar is not wrong but also not complete.

Words will never adequately describe the True-Self or the Soul you must experience them.

The best way I know to experience them is by meditating or through a practice that allows you to become unattached to your thoughts.

Your thoughts will regurgitate something from your past that you heard or read that resonated with you. It becomes your belief without any experiential knowledge or investigation.

Keep in mind that it is essential to our spiritual journey not to rest in what we think we understand but to continue investigating and questioning.

It is when we are confused or frustrated that we have our most significant opportunity to come to a new understanding of something, have an ah-ha moment and begin to awaken.

Our human mind loves to create labels and descriptions for everything including things it cannot understand or figure out.

As humans, we love to separate things out into pieces. Once separated and labeled we can choose not to go any further in our investigation because we now think we understand it. I bring it up so you can watch for it, even though it does not always happen.

Separating and labeling can cause problems. We begin to see only the differences, instead of our sameness and we forget how interconnected we are.

The True-Self includes the Soul and is part of the whole. The whole can be labeled many things, for example, The Creative Energy of the Universe, The Divine or God.

I find it easier to connect with the whole when I recognize that everything is energy. What we perceive as our physical material world, is not physical or material at all, in fact, it is far from it as shown in quantum physics.

I can tell you what I have experienced in my life and you will either agree or disagree based on your current beliefs. However, I challenge you to go further. Look at your views and your own life and question it. Do not base anything on what someone else says experience it for yourself.

You mentioned the ego in your question. The way you posed the question it seemed to state that the ego is the opposite of the Soul or True-Self. If that is not what you meant, then I apologize. If you did, then I would ask you to question that assumption.

There is a misperception for many that the ego is a bad thing and should be eliminated because it interferes with spiritual growth. This is true if the ego is overgrown and allowed to take control. However, the ego plays a necessary role in our human experience; it is the part that thinks, acts, discriminates, decides and acts appropriately in any situation you face in the world. I would contend that a healthy ego is a necessary part of any successful spiritual journey.

You may believe in God as a being who created everything, you may see God as the energy that created and resides in all things, or you may have another belief or perception. As an experiment, I would ask you to question that belief or understanding and see if it holds true for you now.

Are the Soul and the True-Self two separate aspects of who we are? Are they the same or perhaps something different?

I hope that rather than just give you an answer that confirms your current beliefs I have given you some things to question and contemplate on your journey. Because it is through questioning, awareness, and contemplation that you will bring more light into your life and this world.

Humanity’s Most Important Discovery to Make

/ Tim Custis / 3 Comments

Finding our True-Self through inner exploration is more important than any scientific discovery, invention or creation by man. If we do not take this responsibility seriously, we will continue to destroy the planet and ourselves through the choices we make.

Our choices arise from a foundation created by our conditioning and the person we have become, not our True-Self. The True-Self is free from all conditioning. This conditioning gets passed down from generation to generation within our race, gender, family, country or any other group that we belong. If we continue on our current path without any correction in our thinking or actions, the planet will continue to deteriorate, and we will keep fighting wars until we self-destruct, whether these wars are internal ones or with each other.

Bringing awareness to our thoughts and actions, and questioning them will begin to release this conditioning. Know, that our conditioning, like a bad habit or addiction, will not let go without a fight and we must be vigilant in our efforts to expose it and free ourselves. If we do not bring the light of awareness into our lives, then we are destined to be oblivious to this conditioning and held hostage by it.

If you think you are already free from it, I would ask you to question that thought because your conditioning may be deceiving you. Also, when your thoughts say it is too hard or you cannot or do not need to do it know that this too is your conditioning anchoring in and protecting its place in your life. You always have the power and ability to release your conditioning, no matter what your current situation is in this life.

If you are sincere in your wish to release it, then your unbending intention to question your thoughts and actions will begin to shine a light in the corners of your being, exposing what needs to release. You have nothing to fear or lose except that which you no longer need.

There is nothing more important in your life than freeing yourself from this conditioning. When our guidance comes from the True-Self, we lead from the heart, and our efforts will be for the highest good of everyone. Can you see the possibilities once we rise to our full potential and enter the flow of natures organizing intelligence?

I know it is possible to live in a peaceful world where everyone can flourish together without fear. What do you think?

Something Helpful in Difficult Times

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When things get tough, we are often stuck in thinking continuous thoughts about our difficult situation, and we are unable to break out of this unhelpful thinking. At some point, a moment of clarity will show up, and you will hear these thoughts. At that moment reach for a thought that feels better.

When you do this, you will find that The Universe will respond differently because of your effort, and your intention. Yes, you may fall back into the darkness of your thoughts temporarily, but remember each time you reach for something that feels better you will release a piece of the dark revealing more light.

Eventually, this massive field of darkness that you thought you would never find your way out of will reveal the light again. The dark never destroys the light, and it only hides it until we focus on it. Remember whatever we put our attention on becomes visible. This is not new age gibberish; this is quantum physics in action. This is how life works, and you always have a way back to the light if you look for it.

So remember to reach for a thought that feels better when things do not feel right and watch how the Universe responds to your effort to feel better. Staying in the dark is optional, and it is your choice whether to live there or in the light.