Spirituality

In the Beginning

/ Tim Custis / Leave a comment

Start to pay attention by using your capacity of awareness and notice if you are being led astray by spontaneous and untrue thoughts. Begin to question your thoughts. For example, ask yourself, is this thought true, or am I one-hundred percent sure that this will happen.

Know that everyone who begins on the path of self-discovery, self-inquiry, or the spiritual path, meets resistance from within through their thoughts, emotions, and physical body.

Sometimes this resistance is very subtle, and it requires focused attention to notice its trickery. It is in these subtle yet significant moments that we make a choice. Sometimes this choice is conscious, and sometimes it is not. However, with awareness, we watch. The space that we observe from let’s call it the observer position, for now, feels outside the body/mind.

From this position, we can observe our conscious decisions and see how they unfold. Even when choices are made out of habit, or they arise unconsciously, they can be seen by focusing our attention in awareness. Once seen, conditioning can dissolve, and habitual patterns can fall away.

You have experienced this watching before, we all have, and you may be doing it right now as thoughts come up about what I am saying. On the other hand, you may have noticed it when sitting quietly or out in nature. You discover how endless the stream of thoughts are and watch as they come and go.

It is paramount that you have direct experience of this because it is through direct experience that we open the door to making an essential shift. Otherwise, we will continue along in life living from our conditioning and habits, and never getting the chance to experience true freedom.

Instead, the subtle and dramatic deceptions of the mind and the thoughts that arise from it will keep us stuck. Stuck in a world of falsehood, and all the while, we will believe everything that crosses it to be completely accurate. To follow blindly will only lead to endless worry, fear, anger, and great suffering. Perhaps you already experience this in life. I am here to tell you there is another way, one that leads to greater peace and stability.

An Observation

/ Tim Custis / 2 Comments

Do you mold your religious/spiritual teachings around your life to self-satisfy your egoic actions? This can be seen today by many who put their political party and personal interests over their religious ideology.

Or do you embody your religion/spiritual teaching and put it first, by questioning your words and actions and always correcting course when errors are seen?

You can see these two very different ways of living playing out around the world, which will manifest two very different outcomes. This observation is not new; they can both be seen by looking back through history at how men and women have treated their fellow human beings, the planet, and themselves.

For the Seeker of Enlightenment

/ Tim Custis / Leave a comment

The spiritual seeker who seeks enlightenment for himself or herself to help everyone else is being misled by their own ego and thoughts. In a covert way, it perpetuates our separation. We must recognize that this is a collective journey. The future of spirituality will not be found in the “enlightenment” of a single person or group of people, it will arrive through us collectively.

Therefore the phrase, “we are all one” is not just a catchphrase, but brings to light the totality of consciousness. Our recognition and experience of this truth brings our energy into alignment with the creative force of the Universe. This shift in thinking is more valuable than our efforts up to this point. Once we embody this truth, any action we take from this higher level of understanding will accelerate the ongoing evolution of our collective spiritual journey and it will accelerate the arrival of enlightenment on the collective level.

The recognition and experience that “we are all one” is shown to us through an internal knowing, intuition or personal experience, and is accessed in a state of non-thinking. A state of non-thinking can be reached in many ways, meditation, contemplative prayer, time alone in nature or any other way that quiets the mind.

You do not seek this experience, but allow it into your awareness by awakening to what is. When we are awestruck by a beautiful sunset we do not seek the feeling out it just happens, because the awe that you experience is in the sunset. This is also true when experiencing the totality of consciousness and our oneness. However, if you are too busy experiencing the busyness of life, your thinking will never slow down enough to connect with your True-Self, which is one with the totality of all things.

Do not allow the thinking of your False-Self to tell you that you do not have time or that when you do take time that it is not working. Because this is how the cunning False-Self keeps us looped in a perpetual state of busyness. From here we cannot experience our oneness, release our conditioning or see the truth that is all around us.

Do You Desire More From Life

/ Tim Custis / Leave a comment

Many of you are hearing the call of your Soul, that surely there is something more to life. This desire that you feel is not about material things, more money, relationships or for that matter anything outside yourself.

It is about the uncovering of your True-Self, which lies under your conditioning. This calling will expose your connection to the Divine Creator and is about waking up, leaving behind who you have become.

By accepting this calling, you will begin on a journey that can only be guided by God. Awaken to this guidance by letting go of the need to control. Do not force your choices to reach happiness, because this will only lead to suffering. By the way, it is how you got where you are now. Let life unfold before your eyes as it is meant to do and does so anyway.

Do not believe your thoughts because they will tell you that this is the only the safe place to be and fear will arise to keep you stuck. Your true safety lies being open to what is. Begin to feel your feelings and the sensations in your body. Do not fear your pain, but see it as a trusted guide to awakening from your conditioned slumber.

Move into your fear; trust that the Universe is conspiring in your favor and that you will always be taken care of and safe. Begin to understand that you are one with the divine creative energy of the universe. Know that you do not have to figure everything out, that you can just let go and receive that which you desire. You no longer have to work so hard to accomplish what you want any more. Can you trust this much? Can you be open to receive or will you continue to try to force your life to be what you want, instead of allowing life to unfold in its natural way.

I wonder…

/ Tim Custis / 1 Comment

I wonder, can you experience the depth of your own being in more than just a superficial way?

I wonder, can you see past your own aches and pain to something deeper, more meaningful and true?

I wonder, do you realize that once you do, everything is just energy?

I wonder, do you know that this energy, which we call consciousness drives our evolution?

I wonder, when you look in the mirror or at the person next to you, that no matter what you see, that we are all one; that we are all part of this energy?

I wonder, if you realized this as more than a concept and embodied it, would the world remain as it is?

I wonder, would love be more common than our differences?

I wonder, will we ever wake up to the God within or remain hostage to the devil that lurks in the minds of those who do not question, but only follow their conditioning?

I wonder…

Short and Sweet #149 –Chasing The Tail

/ Tim Custis / Leave a comment

Have you ever been surprised when science disproves something that they had already told us was true? When personal objectives are involved not even science always leads to the truth. If science is not always right then why do we blindly follow our own thoughts and beliefs as being one-hundred percent true? We all have personal objectives and some of these are covert coming from our subconscious and the False-Self.

The False-Self is leading us astray and further from our True-Self. Working in a very convert way we are unable to see the truth if we do not pay attention and question our motives. Like a dog chasing its tail we think what we want is just insight but the False-Self has tricked us into thinking that what we want is outside us. We run towards it but just as we get close, it disappears only to pop up again in another form or we grasp it and find it does not hold our happiness. This cycle continues and before we know it years, even decades have gone by and we wonder what happened. How did we end up here, we ask. The truth is we never end up anywhere without our complete involvement. We say, but I never intended to end up here. However, the False-Self has led us all along and we just were not paying attention.

We begin losing sight of the True-Self at birth. This disconnection from the Divine allows the False-Self to gain more control over us and in time, we only see what it wants us to see. In addition, do not confuse your religious conviction with your connection to the Divine. These are not the same, if they were you would not be guided by the False-Self with your strong convictions. Moreover, you would be more conscious of the False-Self. The Church can guide you back to the Divine but it is not a substitute for your own personal experiences with God. This is why it does not matter your religion because it is only a guide and does not reveal your True-Self only you can do that. The False-Self will tell you otherwise and make you think that your beliefs are correct so you continue to chase the proverbial tail.

Remember to question your beliefs, religious dogma and pay attention to your actions because it is only when we are in the present moment that we can fully experience the Divine. It is only when we are in the present moment that the False-Self is at rest and we can finally be our True-Self.

 

**If you like this post please help me by sharing it. Have it delivered to your inbox by signing up for an email subscription on your right.

What’s on your mind? I am always open to questions and comments or for a healthy and supportive discussion about these topics.

Short and Sweet #148– Do YOU Need To Change

/ Tim Custis / Leave a comment

Do we really need to change in order for things to get better or is this part of the illusion? Personally, I do not believe that we need to change. I am sure many would disagree with this statement. If something already exists, do we need to change to experience it or do we just need to remember or rediscover it again. When we change our clothes, we look different on the outside but on the inside, we are still the same. Who you have become is what people see on the outside, but this is not who you really are. If you let go of your outside, the façade just like taking your clothes off then and only then will you expose your True-Self.

Is letting go change, you may think so, we even say I am going to change my clothes, however there is a difference because you cannot change the changeless. Do you see the qualities of the Divine as changing or permanent? If you see them as changing then you will disagree with me. When you perceive that something is wrong with you or someone else then you are looking at the False-Self through the eyes of the False-Self. Therefore, you will only see what it sees and you will stay stuck.

We must keep our awareness on the Divine this is what matters. Not only within but we must notice it in everyone. Why because we are all part of the divine and this is who we are, this is our True-Self. When we make a judgment about someone, we are judging him or her through the False-Self. If we continue to act through these filters then we are living in the illusion and not seeing things clearly.

The oneness of the world is only seen through the eyes of the True-Self. Just like in the movie, the Matrix do you want to take the blue pill or the red pill. The choice is yours in each moment of everyday. Therefore, you see it is not about change it is about choice. The choice to pay attention, be aware and live from the True-Self. It is always available to you and you have experienced it in this life. You have seen it in the eyes of a baby; it has caressed you in the arms of love and dowsed you in the sunlight. You just allowed the False-Self to tell you otherwise and fell back into the arms of illusion, instead of the Divine and the True-Self.

 

**If you like this post please help me by sharing it. Have it delivered to your inbox by signing up for an email subscription on your right.

What’s on your mind? I am always open to questions and comments or for a healthy and supportive discussion about these topics.

Short and Sweet #147 – The Body Wound and Bound

/ Tim Custis / Leave a comment

This is not meant to be technical but something useful to give you a different perspective and knowledge about your body. What I am about to share I have ongoing experience with in my body and through my work with clients since 1987.

Many fail to recognize how the body stores information in the form of energy caused by our experiences, physical and emotional trauma, in utero, genetics and past lives. I know that the last one may be hard for some to believe but I have personally experienced this in session and with clients. In addition, this information effects how we interact with the world and those around us. Sometimes these energy patterns can run in the background like a loop tape on an answering machine, which can initiate certain behavior without conscious involvement. As this information is stored, it causes changes to the connective tissue. The connective tissue is not just the soft tissue as you might think; it makes up everything in the body from blood to bone.

Another reason that causes restrictions in the body is called cross-tissue linkage. Imagine your fingers as individual fibers; the cross-linkage occurs when little fibers grow between the fingers causing them to be pulled together. Now instead of having free moving fingers they are stuck together, it reminds me of string cheese. This reduces flexibility and movement causing the soft tissue to be bunched up then over time it becomes tight and hard. These fibers can be released with certain types of bodywork like Spiral Release bringing back the flexibility and freedom.

You might be wondering how all this information can help you. By releasing the connective tissue and the energy patterns held within we can increase flexibility and movement of course but something even more powerful takes place. You can release the energy held in the tissue, which holds old trauma, emotion, and past life memories. Once released our body upgrades on all levels just as your computer does with a software upgrade. We vibrate at a higher frequency because the denser patterns have been released and this allows us to physically feel lighter and connect on a stronger spiritual level. This is one way to uncover the True-Self by releasing the False-Self, the conditioned self from the body.

**If you like this post please help me by sharing it. Have it delivered to your inbox by signing up for an email subscription on your right.

What’s on your mind? I am always open to questions and comments or for a healthy and supportive discussion about these topics.

Short and Sweet #143– Spiritual Superiority Shatters Earthly Inferiority

/ Tim Custis / Leave a comment

When we live life from this truth things become much easier because we know that no matter what is happening in our lives everything will be OK. Now this is not just a lofty ideal or something to aspire to and never attain. It is very real, part of our true nature and can change your life and the world.

Unfortunately, we often get in our own way or we choose the earthly way over the spiritual way. There are many reasons for this, however I believe social conditioning plays a major role for making the earthly choice first. We are conditioned from birth to behave and even believe in certain things. As we grow up, we act from these beliefs without even knowing why or investigating them. Have you ever questioned any of your beliefs or asked yourself why you respond to certain people’s behavior in the way that you do? Do you just say it is their fault or they are stupid, immature or wrong? You may find that your beliefs are not rooted in truth but conditioning. With investigation, you may find that you do not believe them anymore, know where they came from or why you had them in the first place.

Start by paying attention to how you think and act in this life. Then contemplate these feeling, actions and thoughts. Do not point to something or someone outside yourself, look inward. Ask why you took that action or why you are feeling the way you are and notice the thoughts you are having at that moment. Call upon your True-Self to guide you and not acting from the False-Self or allow your unconscious beliefs to guide your every move.

Remember the title, spiritual superiority shatters earthly inferiority. This is important and goes to the foundation of all our problems. When we lose touch with who we really are and only live our lives for our earthly identity, we live through our flaws and conditioning. However, when we can connect with the True-Self and stay in touch with this higher guidance we will feel safe and secure knowing that all will be well no matter what happens.

We can all look back on our lives and see that we have survived everything that has happened to us to this point. We even survived those times and events when we thought we would not. In addition, something even more powerful happened going through those events when we were open to the teaching of the Divine, we came out the other side a better person, a stronger person and a more spiritual person. So do not fear what you cannot control, embrace it. Know that you will be OK and be open to whatever lesson comes with the experience because you will be better for it.

 

**If you like this post please help me by sharing it. Have it delivered to your inbox by signing up for an email subscription on your right.

What’s on your mind? I am always open to questions and comments or for a healthy and supportive discussion about these topics.

Short and Sweet #137 – Thinking

/ Tim Custis / Leave a comment

As long as you think that your thinking self is your highest self, you are lost. Moreover, you will not understand this through thinking; you must experience your higher self without being attached to thought. Meditation is one way to awaken into this experience. However, if you fear letting go of your False-Self you will not be free to experience your True-Self and you will remain stuck in the False-Self thinking that this is reality.

 

**If you like this post please help me by sharing it. Have it delivered to your inbox by signing up for an email subscription on your right.

What’s on your mind? I am always open to questions and comments or for a healthy and supportive discussion about these topics.