Experiencing God

You will never find God by looking out into the world or through the path of knowledge. It is not a matter for the mind. You will never find God thinking that you will only meet him, her, or it after you die. Know too that God does not have human characteristics in its natural state. It cannot be described by words it can only be experienced. Furthermore, you do not have to wait until you die to have this experience.

As long as you attach to personhood and your senses, you will be tricked by the mind and your thoughts, making this experience an elusive one. The mind is a master of distraction. Do you already know this fact?

The world is held captive, not by bad people, but by misguided thinking. However, you do not have to stay hostage to this habitual thinking. You can break free when you want and do not let your thoughts tell you otherwise.

Remember, that many of the beliefs and thoughts that arise in the mind have been instilled in you from a very young age. Therefore, know that it may take some practice to be free. Nevertheless, you cannot fail, because how can you fail to become who you already are, you only need to remember this by experiencing your real nature once again.

In your heart, you know the truth. Take some time to be quiet, drop down from the mind and into the heart of God. I assure you that as long as you do not pick up your thoughts and walk away again, you will remember your real nature.

Keep this as a reminder, you will never find God through your thoughts.

Become the observer of the mind, and retire as its playmate. Use it when you need to, but do not let it continue to use you as it has for so many years. Once you do, the experience of God will find you, because God is not separate from you, and has not forsaken you.

The only thing that separates you from God is a thought and your belief in that thought.

Short and Sweet #56 – Irritation

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

True Success

How do you define true success in your life? Many think that their accomplishments are the sign of a successful life. We are conditioned to believe that the job we have or the money we earn determines our level of success. We are taught to think that the size of our house or the number of possessions we have, signifies success.

Have you noticed that everything that I mentioned above can be taken away at any moment? If it were, would you still consider yourself a successful person or are you now a failure?

The idea that things define our level of success is all based on our conditioning and beliefs that we developed at a very young age, and that gets passed down from generation to generation. Then we carry these beliefs throughout our entire lives without ever exploring what might lie underneath the person we have become and our beliefs. We just assume that this is who we are and that we formed these beliefs out of our own free will.

When we put too much emphasis on what we have acquired or even accomplished, we can tie our identity to them, and when we find ourselves without them, we feel lost in life. We put so much energy into finding, getting or caring for these things, that we do not know who we are without them.

A successful person knows who they really are, their very essence and that allows them to be grounded in the present moment. This requires waking up to our conditioning through awareness and then releasing it.

The conditioned self is called the False-Self. It is the person you have become through your conditioning; an artificial persona that you created to protect yourself.

The True-Self is ever-present awareness, and from this state when something or someone is lost to you, you do not become a casualty of your experience. You are still able to embrace the gift of your life fully, and all that means. You realize that each experience in your life has something to offer you, and that is for your highest good. Even in those times when you do not like it, or it hurts.

Without a keener sense of awareness, you are destined to continue repeating your conditioned behaviors until you die. Without ever knowing true success in this life and what living life to the fullest feels like. You will be fooled by your False-Self into thinking that what you are experiencing now in your life is all it has to offer. This erroneous thinking will keep stuck in a repetitive loop, a sort of sleepwalking, and you will never be able to see true success or enjoy the experience of it.

Finding the Middle

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 is it…?

How is it that we always have enough money to go to war, buy weapons, bail out the banks, but we cannot find a way to feed, clothe and house the homeless?

So many politicians, including those who run for President, say they are Christian yet how is this behavior Christian? How does it even make sense to so many people? Are they just ignoring it, not seeing it or too focused on their own life to notice it?

Those of you who do see it, are you speaking out, taking action or have you become numb to this insane behavior.

It seems if we have an endless amount of money to kill and destroy, that we ought to be able to find the money to help the sick, the homeless and those in need. I believe this to be the logical and moral thing to do, the Christian or human thing to do. What do you think?

How to Change the World

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!

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!

Awareness

What Will Be the Legacy of Your Life

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?

 

Something Helpful in Difficult Times

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.