ASK YOURSELF

  • Have you lost your perspective?
  • Lost your possessions?
  • Lost your job?
  • By consequence, have you lost your identity and purpose?
  • Have you had a troubled life, childhood, marriage and can’t find the way out?
  • Are you self-sabotaging your experience?
  • Has religion lost its meaning?
  • Are you floundering for a purpose in life?
  • Is filling your life with ‘things’ just not satisfying?
  • Have you lost hope?
  • Does everything you thought was true seem all wrong?
  • Do you find yourself in tears at the most unlikely moments?
  • Can’t sleep? Eating too much? Lethargic? Hopeless? Sad?
  • Are you a victim?
  • Children annoying and out of control?

There is a way out of being the victim, turning lemons into lemonade, finding the experience of YOUR life through your personal passion, desires and dreams. Here are certain fundamental keys that lead towards a fulfilled life.

1. The BODY is the vessel where the sacred habitates. If the vessel is dirty, unclear, clogged, where can the sacred seek shelter? Can the view be clear and crisp when the windows or glasses are dirty or foggy? Every aspect of the vessel must be brought into integration- body, mind, spirit, emotion, environment and relationships. When the vessel is no longer at war with itself, the sacred feels safety, security and slowly reinhabits. The irony is that many eastern religions teach people how to have out-of-body experiences. Yet, most of the public spends their day out-of-body. Realignment of these forces is the first step.

2. Finding your SPIRIT and ALIVENESS has nothing to do with religion! Science has estimated that at the moment of death, 21 grams are lost when the ‘spirit or animation’ leaves the body. Our spirit gives us our aliveness factor beyond religion, beyond convention, beyond dogma and beyond laws. The magic of ‘aliveness’ can be lost when we suffer from tiredness, abuse (verbal, emotional, mental, physical), belittling and demeaning relationships, being corralled into narrow thoughts and beliefs by authority figures or life circumstances (like war, illness, poverty). Finding your Spirit again, without the use of external stimulants like drugs, food, alcohol, things and the like, is paramount to a VIBRANT life.

3. There is general acceptance that getting away, going on vacation, travel or going or doing something elsewhere will bring satisfaction, adventure. Yet, the INNER ADVENTURE has more potential, more space. Just as the vast oceans and the heavens, the inner understanding of the microcosm are, for the most part, unexplored and unknown, so to are the many realms of the inner journey. There are many places to explore in the quietness because the territory is vast. There are 52 places in the brain/mind where inner awareness can go during meditation.

4. Incorporating INTUITION and INSIGHT as well as LOGIC and PRACTICALITY to approach any problem requires a delicate balancing act with the brain, mind, heart, spirit, environment and physiology as well as behaviors, beliefs and habitudes. In a society that values logic, rationality, competition and mental prowess, the intuitive mind becomes dormant, silent and hidden. Einstein, who was both intuitive and logical, mastered this balance.

5. ASKING THE APPROPRIATE QUESTIONS both of yourself and others for a deeper understanding of life elicits unforeseen knowledge and unexpected answers. This art form is NOT taught in schools, homes or communities that expect instead complacent, dutiful taxpaying citizens who do not question authority. Asking appropriate, clear, expressive questions to the burning issues in our minds and hearts can lead to great joy, eliminate frustration and anxiety, and impart deep insight.

6. LISTENING then HEARING when the universe speaks eliminates the intermediaries, chaos and confusion. More correctly, the answers lie within ourselves awaiting discovery. The answers have been thwarted by the multitude of authority figures in our lives and take the form of a very small quiet voice within. Listening and Hearing need to now be taught as they are no longer innate.

7. UNPLUGGING from the emotional, mental circuitry that is wired to the veils, walls and masks of society, custom and tradition or DISCONNECTING from rambling inner thoughts, feelings and behaviors, requires QUIET, SILENT, STILLNESS. This environment provides the groundwork for answers to surface. In the world full of noise, violence, running, fear and anger on television, commercials, advertising, work or home life, can anyone possibly ‘hear themselves think’ much less the universe talking back? Unfortunately, the silence at bedtime offers the only time throughout the day for uninterrupted connection to the ethers. Is it any wonder chronic sleep problems exist?

8. FINDING ANSWERS EVERYWHERE, even in the smallest things or most obscure places, without intermediaries, one can become entrained to the knowledge and wisdom of inner ‘knowing’ for personal problem solving and power. Institutions entrance humanity into believing that the ‘expert’, ‘teacher’, ‘master’, ‘professional’, ‘religious’ has all the answers. Hence, generations of trusting individuals surrendered to these authority figures and figureheads. Once you are capable of asking the right questions and become quiet and still, you must now learn to search for the answers in the most mundane places- license plates, billboards, lyrics in a song, sandy beaches or a child’s comments until the internal voice overrides all the rest. Have you ever thought of a question and seen the answer on a license plate or billboard? The universe speaks to us everywhere, all the time but we have lost the ability to personally ‘see and hear’ it singing.

9. Making INFORMED CHOICES from a diverse, insightful, comprehensive perspective utilizing a multitude of resources (rather than the uncensored, chaotic panacea on the internet) that resonates with YOU. Clear, concise resolutions are impossible if you don’t know all the choices that are available. The consequences of conditioned acceptance of the status quo rather than inner knowledge can be devastating to the soul and spirit that wants to grow, emerge and fly.

10. UNIFY every event, element of knowledge, feeling, behavior or system requires refined skills so that the spiritual, the soul’s longings and dreams (rather than those imposed by others) leads to a fulfilled life. These skills have been hidden over time in a world that aspires to tunnel vision, career tracks, capitalism and narrow mindedness.

11. Exemplifying FORGIVENESS, GRATITUDE and APPECIATION for every aspect of life, are the hall marks of knowing that BOTH the positive and negative are what mold character, strengthen our soul and enliven our spirit. Human strength, grace and wisdom are acquired with experiences in humility.

Its time to find them again and create MAGIC in your life.

MAGIC

Come take my hand, you should know me

I’ve always been in your mind; you know I will be kind

I’ll be guiding you.

Building your dreams, has to start now

There’s no other road to take; you won’t make a mistake

I’ll be guiding you.

You have to believe we are magic nothing can stand in our way

You have to believe we are magic, don’t let your head ever stray.

And if all your hearts survive, destiny will arrive

Bring all your dreams in line for you.

From where I stand, you are home free,

The planets align so rare; there’s promise in the air

I’ll be guiding you.

Through every turn, I’ll be near you

I’ll come anytime you call, Catch you when you fall

I’ll be guiding you.

You have to believe we are magic, nothing can stand in our way

You have to believe we are magic, don’t let you head ever stray

And if all your hearts survive, destiny will arrive

Bring all your dreams in line for you.

from the movie ‘Xandau’ lyrics by John Farrar