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Showing posts with label Self-Knowledge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Self-Knowledge. Show all posts

August 03, 2010

Not this, not that

In this Issue

"...it's all small stuff"

I find writing my blog entries, of which there have been few as of late, and these newsletters that I have to keep an eye on my tone. It is easy to talk about some problem or issue and get lost there instead of finding a way out.

Life can often be like that, we allow some issue to build and without realizing it we have become lost there and often find it difficult to work our way out. The funny part of it is that the problem is not actually that large, it is our proximity that makes it seem so massive.

If I take a microscope and focus in on a microbe, I can give it the illusion of being larger than a house and if I allow myself to get lost in that idea, I may actually begin to believe, or live within, the delusion. The same thing has happened to all of us in our forgetting our true natures as eternal Spiritual entities and becoming lost within the illusion that this virtual reality simulator is our true nature.

Be it the day-to-day issues and events in our lives or the study of our actual nature outside the illusion of this creation, getting lost is all fun and games if you will let it. Someone once wrote, "Don't sweat the small stuff... and it's all small stuff," how inspired is that?

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

Life is so often directly affected by perspective and perception and when we become aware of it and start to see it for what it actually is, we will find life becoming more and more of an entertainment.

So here is a little homework assignment:

When you find the "reality" of your life becoming overwhelming it is helpful to remember the following:
  1. It is nothing more than an experience in a film I call Life.

  2. I and only I have invested the energy into this so that it may affect me this way.

  3. I can rearrange my perspective to some other emotion/perception if I wish.
People often use this in times of pain, hurt or anger to lessen their sensation that they are feeling in the moment, but I also use it with the more positive experiences in my life. We often cause ourselves pain by being attached to the "good" experiences that, short of chemical manipulation, cannot last forever.

As much as we want to see the less pleasant experiences as powerless, we must also begin to realize that the enjoyable experiences are even more addictive if we do not watch out for them. An addict is running from something unpleasant in the search for a more pleasurable experience.
Try it...

Neti-Neti

There is a practice in one schools of yoga, Jnana (knowledge), called "Neti-Neti" in which the idea is to strip away the illusions around one until you are left with what actually is real. Neti actually means "not this" and together the idea is "Not this, not that."

Often I have people think that this is robbing them of the joys in life by knowing them for the illusory nature that they actually are. Do you see the contradictions here? They are illusions so they are not actually as pleasurable as we believe them to be and once you get into seeing them for what they truly are you can start to experience the true joy that is your REAL nature.

It is like the heroin addict who quits taking the drug, at first they are insanely miserable as they go through the detox phase and once they have finished they start to experience a new existence. There may be things to be dealt with, but once they are handled they are free to enjoy.

Several years ago I realized that all the religions agreed on the idea that we are eternal entities that only inhabit bodies for a while. I began to wonder what it might be to live from that perspective of the Spirit, as I call it, and not from the perspective that is the norm. I can tell you that it changes the world around you and you start to be able to appreciate the joy in all experiences.

It takes persistence and practice to make it consistent, but in time it gets easier and easier and the joys of this state of existence is worth it. Without the addiction to the joys and happiness we think of as real and the avoidance of the rest we dislike we are free to be what we are at our core. That is not only freedom from addiction and a falling away of what you are not, but a discovery of "That thou art."

Enjoy!

Quotations

What is reality anyway! It's nothing but a collective hunch.

Lily Tomlin as Jane Wagner
in "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe"

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

Albert Einstein

Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead.

Sigmund Freud

Few people have the imagination for reality.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Man's greatest mistake is to think of himself as what a 'Star Trek' alien once called; 'an ugly bag of mostly water.' The body is only a temporary home. As a gift of God, it should be cared for but not made the center of the universe.

Spiritgeek

Calendar & Announcements
Club Inspire U at Club Cobra Sep 25, 2010

Spiritgeek.com has partnered with Inspire U Records in presenting Club Inspire U at Club Cobra in North Hollywood.

From Kris Searle, 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.
"10 Secrets to the Secret"™ Book Release Summer 2010

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. "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.

While finishing "10 Secrets to the Secret"™ is set for later this summer, if we can get the publishing taken care of early enough, we are hoping to release it at the Club Inspire U event on the 25th of September.

In keeping with the Club Inspire U tradition, all copies sold at the event will donate 20% of the profits to the American Cancer Society.
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July 01, 2010

The Independence of Spirit

In this Issue

A State of Independence

Being July, in the United States, a very important holiday is coming up in the next few days. July 4th, also known as Independence Day, is a remembrance of the day that the colonies adopted the Declaration of Independence.

This is the first of a collection of documents that contain ideas that if for no other reason should go down in history for the profound spiritual nature they enclose. In the Declaration of Independence the statement of, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Imagine the world that would be if we actually lived up to such high ideals!

If we will, we can live up to these ideas and prosper in the freedoms that they offer. As with all choices, they do not come without repercussions. There are costs with this choice as with all choices.

Are you willing to pay the price? Are you willing to give up the idea that you are better than another? Will you remove the idea that you and only you have the truth and that all others must abide by your truth and more importantly, are you wiling to live within your own truth? Can you accept that what brings you happiness may not bring it to another and their happiness may not be understood by you?

When you are truly willing to accept the responsibilities and consequences of the choice, then you can declare yourself as Independent and step into a life that you likely have not even dreamed of before.

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

To find a personal state of independence one must find where they have allowed themselves to become enslaved. In many places we are very aware of our enslavement, we have knowingly allowed ourselves to become or to continue since in one way or another there appears to be some benefit.

There are also places where we will not realize our slavery to ideas, methods or the norms of our lives. These can be a bit more difficult to access, but as with all things in your life, if you can question it, you can address it.

So here is a little homework assignment:

This simple exercise can be used initially to address the areas in our lives we are aware of and then later with the ones we become aware of when we start looking. It is quite simple and as with most of my exercises, it begins with looking at you.

Take a look at what appear to be hard, fast rules in your life. The more required the rule or way of doing things, the more likely there is a possible binding there.

Look at it very closely.
  • What do you "have" to do with this?
  • Why do you "have" to?
  • Where did this rule or way of doing things come from?
  • Is there possibly an alternate way of doing or being?
Often our rules come from our childhoods, we were told that this is the way things are and we believed it for any number of reasons.

Now do not get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with rules and ways of doing things, but if you are unable to question them, then you are likely a slave to them and that can become a hindrance in your growth. It boils down to becoming aware and then deciding if you want to change it.

...and Facts are Facts

Why would we allow ourselves to become abjectly subservient to any idea, philosophy or fact? Oh yes, we are very often slaves to facts. Oh and how we fight sometimes to validate, justify and convince ourselves that being owned is not only right, but required.

Think about life and death for a moment. It is a fact that everyone dies, except for an exceedingly few listed in some of the world's scripture, it is not even a question, but an absolute given. OK, so if it is destined to happen, why do we spend so much time, energy and effort in attempting to avoid it?

Because we have become slaves to the idea that death must be bad, it is different and we have allowed ourselves to be owned by the fear of that difference. Someone told me recently that often fear is actually unrealized empowerment misunderstood by the mind and ego, what in interesting idea.

So we have a fact, apparently an uncomfortable one, so if we just accept that fact and live every moment to its utmost, squeezing every drop of life out of it, would that not make for a fantastic life unto itself? Add to that the freedom that comes with it to pursue the callings of your Heart and Spirit to unfold a life that could only have been designed by Heavenly Creature, you, and what would you have, absolute awesomeness!

There is an old joke that says something along the idea that most of us act as if our bodies are needed in pristine condition as if they were going to be used as a trade-in for a newer model. I want to turn the body in, used, dented a few times, worn, possibly falling apart and arrive saying "Wow, what a ride!" What about you?

Quotations

The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage.

Thucydides

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.

Albert Camus

Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.

Benjamin Franklin

A life of reaction is a life of slavery, intellectually and spiritually. One must fight for a life of action, not reaction.

Rita Mae Brown

Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you're living?

Bob Marley

Slavery of the body is terrible and should never be allowed but slavery of the Mind and Spirit is purely diabolical.

Spiritgeek

Calendar & Announcements
"10 Secrets to the Secret"™ Discussion Group Every Monday†

† Every Monday except July 5th

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.

The tenth and final session of the series will be July 26th.


Reputation Label's "NerveCast Friday" Every Friday

Reputation Label's "NerveCast 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.

From the Reputation Label site:

We promote the great music through many media outlets and none better than Reverbnation.com. Come and join our site there if you are a band so that we can get you promoted and seen world wide..do it now !!

Join us in the chat room during the show for another dimension of interactive radio.


Club Inspire U Jul 24, 2010

Spiritgeek.com has partnered with Inspire U Records in presenting Club Inspire U at Club Cobra in North Hollywood.

In addition to the always exceptional event of inspiring artists, there will be the addition of Inspire U Records founder Kris Searle's birthday and the release party for Kris' new single, "Warning Signs" featuring Darnell Swallow. There may be another release going on at the event, but that is not definite as of yet.

From the Club Inspire U site:

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.


Interview on Wake Up!  

Ryan Ray and Fuz are the hosts of Wake Up! and recently invited me to do a segment on their weekly webcast.

From the Wake Up! site:

Wake UP! Explore your Passion is a TV talk show that changes the way people think about work. Through guest success stories and audience participation, host Ryan Ray inspires and motivates those who live only for the weekend to break the cycle and begin exploring their passion every day.




"10 Secrets to the Secret"™ Book Release Summer 2010

While finishing "10 Secrets to the Secret"™ is set for later this summer, if we can get the publishing taken care of early enough, we are hoping to release it at the Club Inspire U event on the 24th of July.

In keeping with the Club Inspire U tradition, all copies sold at the event will donate 20% of the profits to the American Cancer Society.
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December 02, 2009

A Gift of Freedom

In this Issue

Leaving the Past in the Past

The Holiday Season is officially on us and there are SO many ways to consider writing about this month, but I received my best present late last month. I had a conversation with someone who is very important to me for the first time in nearly 30 years. We had spoken in the past, but it was always full of trepidation, reserved and distant.

For what truly may have been the first time, we spoke to each other as people, there were some tears (predominantly of joy) and real communication and it was possible because I became aware of how much past I was projecting into my future.

As human beings it is a natural tendency for us to project the pains and hurts into the future in an attempt to protect ourselves from having to relive those feelings and situations.

An example of this I heard recently is like our love lives. The first time we fall in love, we put it all out there, we hold nothing back and eventually it usually falls apart (those who found their life mate first off officially owe the universe a big, make that huge, THANK YOU!). The next time or two we still put it all out, but after a while we begin to hold a little something back to protect ourselves. Eventually we hold more and more back and anyone who has been in relationships like this knows, it becomes detrimental in the end.

This behavior is completely natural and can also be lessened by becoming aware of it and then nipping it in the butt as it happens.

So here is the best Chanu-Kwanz-Christa-Yule gift I can think of for you this season, the knowledge that the past can be laid to rest where it belongs, in the past. This not only releases you from dragging the past along like a bag of bricks, but opens all sorts of possibilities for creating a future based on intention and not mired in the muck of yesterday.

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

It is our nature, unless we have insightful parents that have taught us otherwise to not only drag the past into the present, but use it to filter our future. We do this because it seems logical that those occasions in the past that hurt, scared or humiliated us can be avoided in the future by avoiding the "what" that caused these "bad" feelings or experiences. This is a very natural expression.

But one drawback to doing this, is we tend to become suspicious, someone says "Hi, how are you?" and we hear "OK, what does he want?"

There are more expressions of this than I could ever list, not that I really want to, but I am sure once you start looking for these, you will become aware of many expressions of this in your thoughts and life.

So here are a couple of little homework assignments:

There a two easy ways to address this that I can think of off the top of my head, both will help you.

When you find yourself limiting yourself or reacting in some way that likely makes no logical sense to you (though it often becomes self-justified over time) take a step back and look at your reaction and ask yourself "Why?" Not too much later you will start to remember times in the past when you had some experience(s) that the current issue touched on.

Look at these memories, but analyze them from the perspective of what actually happened, the historic actions alone. After you have the facts of the actions, look at how you added to it, your interpretation. For example, the facts: He did not return my call after I left a message on the voice mail. The interpretation can be just about anything, but for this example we will go with "I am not important enough for him to return my call and he does not really care about me and is only using me for something." Wow, all that from a single missed return call, but we all tend to be true drama queens inside our minds.

Now that we know what the facts are versus what we added to it, we can remove the interpretation and realign the act with the reality in one way or another. This may take a conversation in the future where you talk about all those missed calls and learn the real reason. It is possible that your assessment was right, but where would you rather live; knowing the truth or presuming the worst?

The second place to look is in the major events and traumas in our life, what did we take out of them? Once again, the process is to separate the pieces and do the same with it as we did for the above.

Once we become of how we have done this in the past, we not only bury the past where it belongs, but we can become aware of our day-to-day continuations of the process. We can stop causing ourselves unnecessary pain every day based on self created delusions. We open the possibility to create new thoughts and accurate assessments of our present. Try it...

Honoring the Past

There is a famous quote that says: "those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it." We have been talking about revising our remembrances of the past, this in no way is to imply that the lessons we have perceived from the past are invalid.

What we are striving for is to make sure that we are learning the actual lessons and not overlaying some misinterpretation on it. In my life, I can usually find this when I notice the pattern that one misunderstood lesson comes back since I failed the class on the first (second or third and sometimes many more) time through.

I have talked about the emotions as the gage of truth, place the thought in your mind and hold it, your system will tell you the validity of it. On the more dramatic or traumatic issues this may take more time and energy, you have to get past what you have added to get to the source and these tend to be well hidden in the stories and buffers we have put around it to protect ourselves and sometimes to hide the truth away.

The secret here is to learn when we pad the facts to validate, justify or protect oneself and then not to use these as lenses by which all things come under scrutiny. The abused child can easily grow to believe that all are out to abuse them, but they can also learn that the abuser was a single individual that needed something and the abused child was the recipient. Of the above choices, which filter would you prefer perceiving your life through?

Quotations

Don't be trapped by dogma -- which is living with the results of other people's thinking.

Steve Jobs

The instinct of nearly all societies is to lock up anybody who is truly free. First, society begins by trying to beat you up. If this fails, they try to poison you. If this fails too, they finish by loading honors on your head.

Jean Cocteau

Part of getting a second chance is taking responsibility for the mess you made in the first place.

Kiefer Sutherland
as Jack Bauer on "24"

Memory feeds imagination.

Amy Tan

Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right.

Henry Ford

The memory should be specially taxed in youth, since it is then that it is strongest and most tenacious. But in choosing the things that should be committed to memory the utmost care and forethought must be exercised; as lessons well learnt in youth are never forgotten.

Arthur Schopenhauer

We tend to live in fear of the past recurring and thereby end up recreating the past that we are attempting to avoid. Remember that fear is not real, it is only in the mind. Someone once said that fear was an acronym for False Education Appearing Real.

Spiritgeek
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October 01, 2009

Masks and Transitions

In this Issue

Fall and Halloween

October is now upon us and the seasons are beginning to show there change, yes, even here in Southern California where they say we have no seasons the trees are beginning to change, well not the evergreens and palms, but the rest.

Halloween was always my favorite holiday, even more than Christmas, though at the time I don't even think I had a clue as to why. As I have gotten older and seen the happenings of life and the lessons that I have carried along, I think a lot of my love for Halloween had to do with the costumes and the ability to do the one thing I couldn't the rest of the year, be someone or something else.

As adults, we try to have the courage to be honestly ourselves, but it is often easier to be what those around us expect. It is only natural that we want to fit-in, we want acceptance and friendship.

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 a child, my favorite thing about October was the brisk winds and All Hallow's Eve, aka Halloween. Brought up the way I was there was always the slight idea that it was the Devil's night and Witches and Goblins were just naughty enough to get away with this one time of the year.

On this night of magic and mayhem, one could be anything they wanted. I remember the year I was dressed as my hero at the time Lt. Cmdr. Spock. My mother and I spent time finding the right shirt and pants and finally gave up on the ears but used a Sharpie to make the eye-brows (to bad they turned green almost immediately). I think this was about 3rd or 4th grade so we are talking about 8 or 9 years of age.

I always admired the fact that Spock attempted to fit in, controlling his emotions and living by logic at home and trying to fit in with the "illogical" humans in Star Fleet, at the end of the day, he was always true to who and what he was.

Happiness in many situations seems fleeting because we have spent so much time becoming what others expect or what we think they want that we have nearly forgotten who we really are. When we live in this prison of expectations, there is no way to avoid becoming upset when that clashes with the truth of ourselves.

So here's a couple of little homework assignments:

Whenever you find yourself wearing a mask to fit in, ask yourself if this is what you really are and if the answer is no, become aware that the stress of the situation is a choice you have made.

Except for Halloween and the occasional costume party, masks are not part of out selves and should be discarded. In many cases, this can require tremendous courage to stand up for truth. Some call it radical truth, I call it peace (at least in the long run) as that is what you will eventually gain.

Death: a New Perspective

When people think of Halloween, the theme of death tends to come up, between skeletons and ghosts, vampires and zombies, the night has many shades (bad pun intended). Many occultists believe that the veil between this world and the next is particularly thin on this night.

When we think of death, we often view it as an ending when those of us who believe in souls could easily view it as a beginning just as easily. In Eastern Philosophy, death is viewed as a simple transition for the soul, a change of physical clothing for the most part.

We mourn the passing of our friends but I tend to rejoice in their graduation from their current class of lessons to their next curriculum. As a friend of mine used to say, funerals of for the living, the dead have enough sense not to be there.

When I do Tarot readings for the friends and clients that ask, the 13th card of the Major Arcana usually brings fear to the person I read for as it is labeled Death and usually has a picture of the Grim Reaper on it. This card has never meant a physical death to the person I am reading for, but a situational death or transition in their lives and/or situations.

For anything new to occur, something old must pass to the wayside. Without Death the universe would end up being the junk closet of Life and its by-products.

As the Buddha said, "Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely." So live wisely and feel free to drop your fear of death. To those who know Truth, Death is nothing to worry about.

Quotations

Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.

James Arthur Baldwin

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.

Mark Twain

The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party, when the masks are dropped.

Cesare Pavese

...if Death is the end, then life is pointless. But if Death is truly just a transition from one state to another and life continues in new bodies, places and/or forms, then there is a chance for justice in the universe after all. Not only would that allow for a truly gracious God, but the likelihood of validation for freedom of choice after all.

Spiritgeek
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