Mastering Reality

In this Issue

• Coexist
• A Thought for Your Practice
• Mastery through Judgment, sort of…
• Quotations
• Calendar & Announcements

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Coexist

Here in Los Angeles, I have begun to see more and more of the “Coexist” bumper stickers. If you have not seen them, they spell it out in the symbols of major religions. I do not know who originally thought of it, but bravo!

The other day I was on Facebook surfing through one of their applications called Flair. “Flair” are electronic buttons and I have been collecting buttons for a while, electronic and otherwise actually. I came across this one to the right.

It really saddened me at first since it really displays the hard-core divisions that have become so prevalent in this day and age. We have become a world of “you're either with us, or against us” with no grey areas in between and little to no interest in cooperation or negotiation, no wonder change has become so slow.

The part of this that I find so ironic is that most of the people who believe that this is a valid excuse to kill or destroy others tend to be the same ones that wave their flags or books of worship, Bible, Koran, etc, and in this country claim to be defending “American ideals” and values while throwing the Constitution and Bill of Rights out the window (I hear similar statements from other nations and cultures).

If we judge others as being beyond hope or help, why should we be surprised if they feel the same way toward us? It is not about changing people, but in changing how we relate and think about them. Look for the best and if you cannot find it, project something good and uplifting onto them. Patanjali, in his “Yoga Sutras,” addresses this so directly in one line.

By cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the happy and joyful, compassion for the unhappy and sorrowful, gladness for the virtuous and non-judgmentalism towards the wicked, the mind acquires and maintains its undisturbed calmness.

Yoga Sutras 1:33

If you have content you would like to pass along or to submit your own content, a question or comment on this newsletter, please send it to: editorial@spiritgeek.com or go to the online version of the Zeitgeist Newsletter.

A Thought for Your Practice

As humans we have a natural tendency to judge everything around us. In my experience, it is not really the others we are judging, but ourselves. We judge ourselves VERY harshly and project it out into and onto the world.

So here is a quick exercise:

When caught pointing at someone, I had a schoolteacher that would say: “Remember, you have three fingers pointing back at you.” Judgment works in the same way, you think you are projecting out “there,” but you are actually looking within and apparently not real happy with what you see.

In L. Ron Hubbard’s “Church of Scientology,” they use a technique called “clearing” in an attempt to get at the base causes of their reactions to what happens around them. The basic idea is that by knowing the initial cause of a reaction, you cease being at its mercy and begin to be able to choose how you will respond. That is the big difference, responding to what happens rather than reacting blindly.

When you find yourself having reacted to some happening and wishing you had done it differently, look into yourself and see where that reaction came from. Look into it all, the emotions that came up, the history that it relates to, the “story” that you have told yourself.

Very often we will find that we have blind spots in these areas and surprisingly often we will find that we placed those blind spots ourselves to avoid something or justify what we thought or did.

As Gandhi said: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” Part of becoming that change is to see yourself for what you are as well. Watch and learn about yourself.

Try it…

Mastery through Judgment, sort of…

Have you ever actually sat down and looked at what ideas and thoughts are programmed into your head, often to the point that they seem as if they are natural responses? Fears are an excellent example of how this works.

Psychologists say that at birth, a baby has only two fears, falling and loud noises; all other fears are learned along the way. Now if you suffer from another fear, you are likely to believe that it is not only natural, but also that you came into the world this way. If that truly is the case, are you willing to address it? If it is not the case and you learned it in the process of your life, do you want to remove it?

Every month there is one aspect of this newsletter that never changes, the necessity to look at yourself and to become intimately aware of whom and what you are and how you function. It is through this self-familiarity that you truly find what your issues are and what areas are in need of being addressed.

Looking at others can be of help also, but most tend to use their assessments of others as validations for their judgments and to increase their egos. If you want to incorporate the outside world into your self-analysis, remember that what you harshly judge “them” to be is actually where you are lacking in yourself and that you are projecting that lack onto them.

The more you can learn about yourself and how you relate to the world around you, the more you see your reality for what it truly is, making you its master! Mastering your reality then allows you to change it into what you wish. You will find that a surprising amount of that reality has merely been a projection of your own self-image and your judgment of your own perceived lacking. Now you have the basic tools to change it at will!

Enjoy!

Quotations

We either create our own reality or allow someone else to do it for us.

JJ Dewey

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

Carl Jung

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

Mother Teresa

I regard Christian and Jewish fundamentalism, and all other forms of fundamentalism, as the enemies of God - and I hope you'll quote me on that.

Arthur Hertzberg

Want to know an excellent gauge of coming change? Watch the “conservatives” fight to keep it the same, the harder the fight, the closer the change.

Robert Burgener/Spiritgeek

Calendar & Announcements

New Spiritgeek.com Website	Now Online!
The new and improved Spiritgeek.com is up and running for your convenience. A better layout with visual cues as to what the content is to make it easier to find what you are looking for. Additionally, Google™ Custom Search which has been added to the site and has been setup to search all our sites, including the blog, newsletter and the video transcripts from one single location.
Congratulations Kris Searle and Inspire U Records
Kris Searle of Inspire U Records have not only been nominated for their fourth award in three years for “Warning Signs” in the “Electronica/Dance” category at the 2010 Los Angeles Music Awards, but they won again this year! A special mention is due since I believe Kris Searle and Inspire U Records have won each their awards in four different categories, that is definitely worth a special mention!
“10 Secrets to the Secret”™ Book Release	Coming Soon
“10 Secrets to the Secret”™ is a guidebook for the practitioner to help them make the strides in their life they could only dream of before. After nearly 30 years of personal practice and teaching others how to make the Law of Attraction (The Secret™) work in their lives, I have realized that there are several places that seem to be the largest stumbling blocks in manifesting the life of their dreams.

Judgment is...

In this Issue

• Equality and Judgment
• A Thought for Your Practice
• Why Judgment Fails
• Quotations
• Calendar & Announcements

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Equality and Judgment

In June I tend to think about the upcoming festivities of Gay Pride in West Hollywood and the assorted issues that are inevitably going to be raised. Of course the obvious equality of citizens who have "made the choice," according to some, of loving those with the same 23^rd chromosome. There is now the issue of Equality in Marriage which I think should be such a no-brainer, civil-contract versus religious institution, but that is a discussion for a later time.

The thing that I try to keep reviewing in my mind is that famous line from the Gospels to "Judge not." It is with our judgments that one idea is "good" and the other is "bad" we create the source of the inequalities that people feel victimized by.

I have always told people who claim their religious writings justify or require such judgments that when humanity becomes the embodiment of Love completely, then and only then might God consider giving us the option to make such judgments.

I will make a deal with you, I will let you live your life the way you wish to with as expansive or restrictive view of the world around us as you wish. However, you must do the same for me, no matter how much you disagree with my perspective. This is the first step in loving your fellow man (I just could not pass up that double entendre).

If you have content you would like to pass along or to submit your own content, a question or comment on this newsletter, please send it to: editorial@spiritgeek.com or go to the online version of the Zeitgeist Newsletter.

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A Thought for Your Practice

We have many reasons and justifications we use to validate our belief that we have the authority to pass judgments. Sadly, the real purpose for this is to make us look or feel better about ourselves in one way or another.

From the perspective that all is perfect for its time and place, one cannot help but see judgments as a direct contradiction to this view. To judge anything as good or bad is to deny the perfection of all creation and those that inhabit it. Without judgment you just accept as "is" not concerning yourself with its validity.

So here is a little homework assignment:

This is a very simple exercise that if you are honest with yourself will give you both insight into your inner workings, but also areas that you may want or need to address. It is very simple in itself with the actual hard part being your willingness, or lack thereof, to look at yourself.

Take a look at your day today and choose something that you passed judgment on, good or bad.

Look at it very closely.

• What were you judging?
• Why did you make the judgment?
• What value did you get out of it?

We get value from our judgments, that is why we do it, in someway we always get something from them.

Start looking at the What and Whys behind your judgments and see where this takes you and what you start to learn about yourself.

Try it...

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Why Judgment Fails

In the Christian New Testament, we are told that Jesus taught his students, "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again" (Matthew 7:1-2 KJV).

In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali we are told a way of practicing this non-judgmental attitude, "By being friendly with the happy, by having compassion for the unhappy, joy in the virtuous and disregarding the wicked, we may retain the calmness of mind and spirit" (1:33 RAB/Sg).

The problem with passing judgment on things and actions is that you cannot possibly know all the facts and details in what is happening. Unless one is sociopathic we all do what we think is right. The problem is who's right is right?

When I go to Gay Pride there is always a group of people protesting with their signs about homosexuals going to Hell, they believe they are doing the right thing, trying to save my soul. When someone sleeps around, many would judge him or her a slut, but it may take this to learn that sexual conquest is only temporary and will not give them a continuous state of happiness.

It is like the old expression about not truly knowing another until you have walked a mile in their shoes. The point is that from our limited perspectives and complete lack of information we just cannot truly pass judgment on things. Spirit learns at its own pace and over many lifetimes.

When you see another going through a difficult learning experience, be there for them if they want it. Make yourself available to those learning lessons that you have already mastered and be willing to accept guidance from those who have learned more than you have.

Enjoy!

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Quotations

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta

We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation. It's one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it's another to think that yours is the only path.

Paulo Coelho

You can't depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus

Mark Twain

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

When we judge another we say they are not perfect, but how could a perfect being create anything less?"

Spiritgeek

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Calendar & Announcements

"10 Secrets to the Secret"™ Discussions	Every Monday
The ongoing series of discussions on Robert/Spiritgeek's upcoming book, "10 Secrets to the Secret"™ due out this summer. Learn the 10 insights that have made the Law of Attraction come alive for so many and helped many more discover where they were unintentionally sabotaging themselves. From 3:00PM till about 5:00 at The Spot, 4455 Overland Ave, Culver City, in the back room. Come enjoy good coffee, excellent food and be part of the completion of the book.
"Frantic Friday" Radio Show	Every Friday
Reputation Label's "Frantic Friday" show with Johnny, Kris, the gang and Monkey on the internet live from 1:00PM-3:00PM PDT (4:00-6:00 EDT) from London. Music, conversation, some general mayhem and just a bit of Life Coaching from yours truly. Join us in the chat room during the show for another dimension of interactive radio.
Club Inspire U at Club Cobra	Jul 10, 2010
Date to be confirmed Spiritgeek.com has partnered with Inspire U Records in presenting Club Inspire U at Club Cobra in North Hollywood. From Kris Searle begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting, the creator of Club Inspire U: I wanted to create a place where people feel like it's a 'home from home' where you refresh and vitalize and you leave inspired. A place you can come and not be judged. You are accepted for who you are and for what you do. They aren't enough places like this so this is going to be a place where ideas will thrive and natural talent rules. Whatever it is.

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