Fearlessness

Fearlessness is the first requirement of spirituality.
Cowards can never be moral.

-Mahatma Gandhi

To understand everything
is to forgive everything.

-Buddha

God As A Verb

It's late for me tonight, yet I had a notion to have a look at my site logs, and noticed that I had received a visit from Srinivas Shastri, the author of the Musing With Shastrix blog.

Off I went to see what perspective he had to offer, only to be met by this wonderful quote in the title:

God, to me, it seems, is a verb, not a noun, proper or improper.— Bucky Fuller

Indeed, it seems to me also, that God indeed is a verb. Although I am well aware of Bucky, I do not have the privilege of owning any of his books. An avid inventor, a grand thinker and designer to the benefit of humanity, meeting him and having the opportunity to spend time him would have been a true gift. This man amassed a wealth of ideas in his time, including one of the most unorthodox universities that lasted for a short time, yet influenced many great western thinkers.

However, back to this quote. Consider, God as a verb. A verb being "an action word" as my grade 2 teacher used to say. Ponder God in you, whether you feel yourself to contain only a particle of Godliness, or that your whole being is made of God-stuff. Ponder that not as a noun, but as a VERB. Wow!

That is powerful. Take the perspective of the God in you as an action, or further, lets approach it as a way, a path, a verb to follow through with. In fact, this quote allows me to summarise my complete experience as a human being as simply "God Being".

Rising above the petty goings on of your daily affairs, to ponder your-self as God Being, or as A God Being will either do one of two things depending on your sensitivities.... Shock the heck out of you for even considering such blasphemy, in which case I believe your life will lead you back to this truth ultimately, perhaps at a time when you are ready to accept your magnificence; or (!) it will allow you a moment to take a Godly breath, and see your-self yet again as you truly are. God being in human form.

Questions relating to how one can Be That, in a western society, well, these are deep and to be pondered at length, or at least longer than my eyelids will allow me to stay awake.. however some have been tackled in past articles. Feel free to surf them.

In the meantime, be kind to your true self.

Peace,
-Mikel

Choose Happiness?

Is happiness a choice?

I think so. Actually, I know it experientially. Happiness or any other state of being is most definitely a choice.

Many of you may read this and think "He's nuts! How on earth do you expect me to experience happiness when I just got fired, broke up with my girlfriend and stubbed my toe all in one day!"

Consider for a moment the difference between doing and being. What you are doing is not necessarily the same as who you are being.

You could be cutting the grass, reading a good book or arguing with your teenage daughter over her choice of friends; all things you are doing. At the same time, you may choose to be happy, or sad, or disappointed, or any state of being you could imagine. They are related but separate.

Perhaps you doubt that it's possible to experience happiness at the same time that you do these or other things, that happiness would be quite elusive when at the same time you find yourself arguing with your wife over who makes the better macaroni and cheese. Actually, you have a point.

Coming from the perspective of happiness, certainly makes it difficult to argue with someone, however if that is your inner perspective you hold, while doing the things that you do, almost instantly you find yourself responding differently to situations that you might otherwise allow to affect your mood and feelings.

Another aspect to consider, what about a situation where you are experiencing actual pain, perhaps you have hurt yourself physically by accident or otherwise. How could you possibly feel happiness in a situation like that? Again, this may be an opportunity for you to celebrate life, and exclaim happiness at a minor accident that could be much worse, or even that the injury prevented you from doing something that would cause you more harm than a small accident.

Indeed, almost every morning when I wake (sometime I forget!) I give thanks and allow a sense of happiness to come over me, for waking to another day, for being permitted to continue my work on the earthly plane. Don't get me wrong, I definitely look forward to the day I die, yes I said it, but its true and that's all I can ever be. I'm eager to experience that once in a lifetime journey home, and to know beyond doubt but in experience what awaits me and those I am connected with. Happiness would be a small word then I think.

In the meantime, although the matters of reality can and do interfere with my happiness, I always remember (sooner or later) that it is because of the choices I make, that I create my reality, constantly, incessantly, through my thoughts, feelings, words and deeds. As do you.

So what are you going to do? Mope around all day, or at least experience happiness while doing it? Remember - Happiness is Free!! And never out of fashion.

Love yourself today,
-Mikel

Complete Attention

It is only when we give complete attention to a problem,

and solve it immediately

-- never carrying it over to the next day, the next minute --

that there is solitude.

- Krishnamurti

There is no beginning to practice nor end to enlightenment;

There is no beginning to enlightenment nor end to practice.

- Dogen

Focus On The Positive

Within most self-help, motivational and success focussed literature and courses there are constant themes. One of the most popular is staying focussed on the positive in all aspects of life. Even spiritually this can affect us, dwelling on the negative aspects of our lives can drag us off our path, and ground us in matters of the material plane.

Perhaps that is meant to be, for a purpose, for a time, in your case; overall however bringing a positive focus to anything changes your perception about it and can offer different insights.

Managing the complexity of daily life as a human and maintaining the simple connection to your inner self may be challenging, and to some it appears to come easier than to others. By developing a focus or a means of spinning everything into a positive, it can be a lot easier to allow greater things to happen with you, to you and by you... afterall you attract what you think about.

Positive or negative focus can be seen as a simple matter of establishing and maintaining a chosen viewpoint on an energy related to any experiences. Imagine that your focus is a microscope, and that you have two choices of where to direct its magnification in your life - either on the positive or the negative. Imagine each day in your life, each moment and each event, and consider that you have a choice as to how you view these. In each moment, many of us make an unconscious choice to focus on matters according to habit, for some of us its positive, for the rest, we have the opportunity to learn this.

A simple way is to question yourself in every moment "Where is the positive in this situation?". To seek it out constantly and sometimes to guess. Our intuition would never lie.

Another reinforcing technique, is to use a good affirmation such as "I am always focussed on the positive in everything" or to develop your own that you are comfortable with.

A few days ago I lost a golden money clip, a gift from my partner. At the time it contained over $200- in cash. When I first contemplated it being gone, I knew there was a reason to it but could not see it since even though I practice detachment more and more, I was still a little attached to the clip and it's contents. For the last day I focussed on seeing the positive in this situation, the lesson which I believe I now know. I had been neglecting a core goal.

On the flipside, I know that I have plenty more where that came from and that I never lack money, simply because there is plenty for everyone in this world. Simply believe, and stay focussed on the positive and you will see it too.

Remember, you cannot control others, but you can control your-self.

Peace,
-Mikel

The Road Ahead

To know the road ahead,
Ask those coming back.

-Chinese Proverb

To understand the currents of a river,
he who wishes to know the truth
must enter the water.

-Nisargadatta Maharaj

10 Hot Tips On Effective Affirmations!

Do you have the feeling affirmations are a waste of time and energy? Maybe you tried them a few times and had no results? Many of us use affirmations regularly, if not daily, to reinforce a lesson or grow an aspect of ourselves, or perhaps simply to surround ourselves with positive energy and love. There is no question, at least in my mind, that affirmations are a wonderful and very powerful tool in growing self-awareness and self-empowerment.

Affirmations are a great way to keep your mind centered on those thoughts that you choose to focus on, and their simple act of repetition is a proven way of wearing away at old habits and undesired thought patterns. However using affirmations, whether found or self-inspired, would be significantly less effective if they were simply words that are repeated, over and over again, without just a few secret ingredients. In truth they are not secret, but the word ‘secret’ sure adds some mystery don’t it?

Here are 10 tips and ingredients that will allow you to juice up your affirmations and experience true results, and the best part is it’s free! A gift from me to you, all the tips I’ve collected, created and learned through my own experiences with the power of affirmations. Simply choose any affirmation you have found or created and go to work on re-creating yourself starting today.

1) Repetition – The key ingredient to any affirmation! Repeating it once or twice or only daily simply will not do. The biggest part of an affirmation’s success is how effective you are at getting the message or desire across to your subconscious. Repeating an affirmation once cannot compete with all daily myriad of messages, commercials, news and useless information seeking to rent space in your head. This approach will not attract significant results, and you will probably quit. Ask yourself how soon you want to change? Is repeating it 100 times a day worth the effort? Practically, I do not set a limit. I simply use every spare thought to affirm, constantly.

2) Consistency – Similar to the suggestion on repetition, consistency in the frequency of repetition and in the content of your affirmations are essential. By consistently repeating your message 100 times a day, or every time you have a spare cycle of brain time, you create a consistent flow of this single message like an unending stream speaking to your subconscious. It’s a great way to get the message across.

3) Using Visualization – Just as with goal setting, visualization can further help express the desire contained in your affirmation. For example, if your affirmation were “I am loved”, you can easily reinforce this message with visualizing yourself in loving surroundings, picturing those that are close to you expressing their love for you in different ways. This is affirming the affirmation! And great technique to bring the meaning of it home.

4) Combining Emotion – If you are able to think about your affirmation, then you surely are able to ‘feel’ about it too. In quiet moments, feel how you would feel by having the quality you are expressing through your affirmation. Imagine feeling that aspect of your new self. This is a powerful tip and greatly increases the intensity of your message. An affirmation is more than repeating words, it is affirming something you already know to be true – feel that way now, as if you already have realized your desire.

5) The 30 Day Rule - For any serious progress to be measured, an affirmation must be used for at least 30 days. Expert’s opinions vary on how long we, as humans, take to learn something new to the point of it being a habit. There are studies that say 21 days are enough and others that fall on either side of this marker. In my personal experience, I always achieve a measurable success with any new tool, within 30 days, or I let it go.

6) Less Is More – Choose only a few, powerful affirmations at a time, as opposed to dozens that you repeat only a few times a day each. Having a few, say 1 – 5 affirmations to focus on for a full 30 days is more than enough. Consider for a minute, that you are introducing additional messages into your everyday life, which will compete with all the other messages surrounding you, for your attention. If you fit the average statistics for North America or Europe, then you are receiving hundreds and thousands of messages a day from TV, newspaper, marketing, Internet and myriad others sources, including your family and friends. For your affirmations to truly work, they must have the chance to get their message through! Stick to a few for a month, try it. If you don’t like it, change it, but at least sincerely try this once and I very much doubt you will be disappointed.

7) Self-Monitoring – After a week or so of repeating the same affirmations again, and again, you may find yourself tempted to change them a little to make them sound interesting, or to choose something else. This is the wrong time to be quitting or changing things, because you are now nearing the point of critical mass, when the message you are bringing to your subconscious is starting to get through. Monitor yourself, stick to your target and pat yourself on the back for doing such a great job. Although the results may be few now, they are on their way!

8) Listening – Your golden key to results? Listening to yourself, listening to your internal dialogue, notice changes in your thoughts and self-speak, notice how you feel, notice changes in how others treat you, however small. Listen for the reward of your hard work.

9) Gratitude – As with all things in life, express gratitude either for achieving the goals of your affirmations, or for growing from the experience of failure. If you take true responsibility for your actions, you will know that any failure in this process, is created by you, but is also completely resolvable by yourself also. A wonderful opportunity either way.

10) Reinvent – Finally, if all the above tips fail to inspire you, or assist you in reaching your desired result – simply reinvent yourself and your affirmations! Truly any process will ultimately work, but these tips, used together will supercharge any affirmation you choose to bring you anything you desire.

Wow! 10 ready-to-go tips to bring your affirmations from the mundane to the profane. I use them everyday and just reading my own tips, makes me want to get started again! Lastly, have fun with this process. Don’t beat yourself up if you forget for a day and most importantly never quit. You are sculpting the most beautiful statue in the universe, and that is You and your life!


Peace & Love,
- Mikel

Joy, Soul, Truth

Health, contentment and trust are your greatest possessions, and freedom your greatest joy.
- The Dhammapada

If you see the soul in every living being, then you see truly.
- The Bhagavad Gita

Personal Spiritual Evolution

“The Weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” –Mahatma Gandhi

Within our personal spiritual process, as we journey through our lives and attain new peaks of perspective and self-realization, we continually make the choice to unlock these new lessons within ourselves. Of course there are still many of us that quite simply turn away from the truth that stares us in the face, the truth about ourselves, our nature, our being; and choose to keep existing in the realm of the material, until we again face the same truth. The material realm being all that is outside of ourselves in this reality, the stuff and things that so many of our brothers and sisters dwell on and obsess over.

Failing to recognize the spiritual opportunities to remember who we are and learn from these events is not a thing of judgment. It’s personal and internal, and cannot suffer from judgment until you even are aware that you have ignored your souls desires. Although when you ultimately do, and recognize yourself now continuing or commencing your personal journey of discovery and reintegration, a beautiful human characteristic will come to your rescue if you fall into the lap of judgment, that is forgiveness.

To make progress in your new found realization and affirmation of the desire to walk the path of life, your choice is to simply accept your past mistakes and wholeheartedly forgive yourself. Forgiveness is such a great and powerful tool we can all be grateful for. It can never be overused, or run out of power. It requires no batteries other the input of sincerity. Forgiveness is effortless in essence, it is that beautiful rain shower that washes away misplaced intentions, all words of hatred and anger and allows the soul to shine. Forgiveness paints all people, events and things that are touched by it with the same brush, with the same stroke; that of love.

For us that are willing and able to continually learn and integrate, or re-member aspects of ourselves as we make our way to higher awareness, there are other gifts to learn, other perspectives to be perceived. Sometimes the path is like a whirlwind, egging us on to newer and greater inspiration with seemingly great leaps in comprehension and spiritual cognizance, invigorating and enlivening our inner being to the point of wanting to explode with joy; and other times it feels like the bleak desert, with nothing but dirt, dullness and despair, until it no longer is that!

I am speaking my own words now, and so you may wonder how the journey of life, the path to higher being that you are on, could include despair, or anything negative? Yes, indeed how. I don’t see that despair or other emotions of this nature, taken in this context are intrinsically negative. In fact they bare promise and hope, the hope of again achieving the whirlwind. However it does convey attachment, for if one was not attached to the experience, there would be no feeling of despair. So I know, that ever in times of disconnection, I will again be connected, and begin then clearing everything around me mentally to move my focus back to that which I desire, to speed up the process. Time, in the relative world, is short.

There are other challenges to face, I cannot address them all in a single article, however another great area of challenge I find, is upon gaining a new level of magnificent perspective and being that in the outside world, there can be misunderstandings with people in your orbit, especially with those who are not on their spiritual path of awakening. Those who do not yet seek their inner truth and focus only on their slumber in the world of material reality, may see these new aspects of you as threatening. Dis-connected people do not recognize continual creativity and the ever upward movement toward the light as being desirable, because this means change. And while you that are reading this piece, will have embraced change in order to follow your path, those around you that have not, cannot always understand or grasp it. Do not attempt to help them to. The simple adage is as true for them, as it is for you – “When the student is ready, the teacher appears”. You can never make someone understand something that they are not yet ready to understand.

Feelings of guilt can arise within you. You have acted differently from the past self you were, and yet now you are a new being with a newer version of the truth, and perhaps have feelings of judgment from others surrounding you. While all truth is valid, you will choose to recognize any feelings of guilt that you may experience in your growth and journey, to no longer resist them, for “What you resist, persists”. Instead, acknowledge any guilt or other negative emotion that is standing at your door, if it is there. Have a conversation with it, recognize why it is rearing its head now, and move through it - “Yes hello guilt, I know you are there. Come in, I have no fear of you. You have no hold on me. I allow you to pass through me. Thank you for serving me. I no longer need you. Be gone.”. Simply move on. Keep on, keeping on.

And if that does not work, the first or any time, do not forget your great ally in re-creating yourself, forgiveness.

“The Weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” –Mahatma Gandhi

-Mikel

In Times Of Disconnection

In times of disconnection, do not be distracted, do not be dismayed. In times of distraction, offer up your highest thought, offer up your highest vision of yourself and be that, thoroughly. Keep moving in right action, in right way.
- Mikel

Great change begets great thoughts, which beget great words and great deeds, which beget great change.
- Mikel

Free Your Self

We must always bear in mind that we are not going to be free, but are free already. Every idea that we are bound is a delusion.
- Swami Vivekananda

Blank Canvas

Run out and buy a blank canvas and some art supplies.

Paint something.

Anything, words, thoughts, pictures, abstract. Just Express Yourself.

Go ahead, you have permission, if you feel you need it. And if you dont, simply do it.

Why? ... Why note? Let your-self be.

Ask Better Questions

Why are you not getting what you want? Why are you not achieving your goals? Why is it that you feel like you are at a standstill in your spiritual journey? At times like these, reflecting on the questions that you are asking yourself, and your subconscious, can do more good than wondering where the answers are.

Perhaps you have experienced times like this, most have. Even though your day-to-day existence proceeds uneventfully, even bountifully; you still are left with an inner sense of unease, a sense that you are missing something or have gotten off-track. The sense that you should be making more progress in the script of your life, and feel that you are not.

I can assure you, that though you may feel this way, progress is indeed being made. It’s just occurring at levels of your awareness that are beyond your perception momentarily. More importantly, what are you going to do about how you feel now, about where you should place your next step?

When you have reached a plateau in your development, know that it will not be the last and as with all things, it this too shall pass. Each growth cycle, each phase of awareness you pass through, has it’s own process even though many of us are good at following them yet. Reaching the end of a wonderful period or moment of spiritual awareness, can be accompanied by these plateaus. They are places of rest, especially for those with much baggage to process, and big ego’s to dismantle. For some, they are merely a short time of quiet before moving on and up.

Some who are still in the larger process of working away from the negative, and learning to love, will be tempted to tilt the focus of their energy toward the negative aspects of this plateau experience. Therein lies the frustration of the opening paragraph and the asking of questions similar to it.

At this very point, lies the heart of this article. The temptation to give in to the experience of frustration can lead to the distraction of procrastination, leading you away from the path you long to travel and experience. Here, is where asking better questions will serve you. For many who experience frustration, their questions will change negatively. Not the questions they are asking others, but the questions occurring in their heads, in their mind chatter. Of course meditating and quieting the mind can help immensely in overcoming these hurdles, but sometimes procrastination can arise and lead us away from even these basic spiritual necessities.

So what to do? Simply ask better questions. Instead of asking yourself why you are stuck in a rut, ask yourself how to get out of it. Instead of asking yourself why you are not getting what you want, ask yourself how to go about getting what you desire. Instead of asking yourself why you are at a standstill, ask yourself how to get in motion. Keep asking and asking, until you kickstart the desire within you, to get a move on and begin walking your personal path to enlightenment.

Delays and procrastination do not serve you in the least, after all no one knows this better than you. Your lifespan in this body is limited, and if each moment in it, were the most precious moment you can imagine, you would not be on pause, rather you would push GO!

Part of the challenge of every perceived growth in awareness, is also the universal compensation of dealing with the associated aspect of yourself that you no longer require. Through realizing more of your authentic self, you also will realize aspects of the old you that you no longer require, aspects which no longer serve you. For some this is easy and flows naturally at certain stages, for others it is more challenging to process, but like learning to ride a bicycle takes practice so can this.

In your journey to destruct the ego, and enlighten your spirit, the good or light that you experience will bring these old parts of the self to the surface, aspects that have been constructed over many years, through your environment, upbringing and experiences. This is your opportunity to work through them. To bless them, acknowledge them, love them, release them and to move on to the next step.

So realize where you are. If you feel stuck, ask better questions. Your subconscious serves only you 100% of the time and will always respond, sometimes in mysterious ways so keep listening. When you are past your hurdle, look around to see what aspects of yourself no longer serve you. How do you get rid of them and replace them with these new lighter aspects you have uncovered?

Ask Better Questions.

Tread lightly,
Mikel

Many Paths

There are many paths
But the goal is the same in each.

There is always the easy way
Or the hard way of reaching the goal.

There is the direct route
Or the devious route
Which leads up highways and byways.
The choice is always up to the individual.

You are absolutely free
To choose your own path.
Therefore seek and follow it
And in the end you will reach the goal:
Your self-realisation of Me
The divinity within you.

From, The Living Word by Eileen Caddy