Engineered Reality

Vegas, the mecca of money, or the manifestation of the science of parting you from yours. From the minute you land at the airport and are greeted by the slot machines beckoning your hope, everything around you is engineered to assist you in parting with your dollars willingly. It's impossible to walk out of our hotel room without being confronted by the noisy invitation of different gambling devices.

Even though it's not natural, it is beautiful. Grand structures further than you can see, all vying for your attention. A wonderful place to be a tourist, take pictures, buy silly gifts and walk on the street carrying your overpriced cocktail in hand if you wish.

So far we have attracted a few interesting people to us and the best experiences yet have been the shows and performances.

I havent seen a meditation room yet, but I can get into the spa with treatments starting at $70. Nah, I think Id rather enjoy my $6 latte and keep walking.

Whether you think you can, or think you can't,
You are right.

Peace,
-Mikel

Spiritual Gamble

We are taking a break, trading the snowy streets and -23c wind chill of Ottawa, for the glorious monument to humankind's excess, Las Vegas. Of course, the weather is better, try 19c tomorrow, that suits me just fine.

No deep inner contemplation for you today, just a reminder to relax. In amongst the wonderful and sometimes distracting detours of life, whilst staying close to your truth and purpose, relax. Take it easy. All is as it is meant to be, whether you realize it or not.

The soul shines equally in people
on the farthest island and
in people close at hand.

-The Upanishads

Next week I'll be posting from Sin City.

Till then,

Peace,
-Mikel

Choose A New Experience

Last week I touched on the difference between knowledge and experience, also mentioning time as a part of the equation. The truth of your, my, or anyone's experience is that we can change it, at will, at any time, with intention. Simply changing your thought is sufficient, not just in general, but one at time.

This turns out to be a double-edged sword for many of us, because in western culture, impatience is an in-bred expectation and heavily leveraged by marketers. We have been brought up to expect instant results, and this is reinforced by most of the media we consume.

Also, amongst all the trappings of a materially oriented society, our connection to spirituality and our own core essence, becomes less important to most people. Even though many feel a renaissance of spiritual discovery emerging, a BMW can look awfully attractive compared to a life as a Buddhist monk, considering we don't see a lot of commercials that make us desire following the Buddha.

As I've mentioned in many past articles, you can make any change you desire in your life, now, simply beginning with thought and moving from there. However I feel strongly that you should first accept responsibility for the choices you have made previously. That you should clear out the attic of your past and forgive your previous bad choices and their outcomes. Become detached from them forever after.

Accept them, forgive them, release them; rinse and repeat. A simple process, mastered with practice, and being human you will have plenty of opportunity for more of that! I know I do.

To understand everything, you must forgive everything - Buddha

In going through your clearing house process, you will achieve a sense of clarity in the level of responsibility you accept for your actions. The ultimate realization, in this area, is that you are totally responsible for every person, situation, emotion and manifestation in your life right now. You are the creator of your own soap opera that plays out daily around you.

In time or with practice, it becomes much simpler to change your experience at will. The above steps essentially force you to begin the practice of monitoring your thoughts, in so doing you begin to recognize those thoughts that you no longer desire. These should simply be blessed and discarded.

To change your experience, cultivate and expand those thoughts that are in line with who you choose to be. I am not talking about what you desire to have in your life, that is a separate but not unrelated conversation. Instead who do you choose to be, what state of mind and soul do you desire, while you experience the doing-ness part of your life? Happy, sad, ecstatic?

The more I experience, the less I know. The truths of life are simple indeed. Forgive yourself regularly, allow yourself to feel accepted and acceptable. If you are not happy with a situation, change it, make a new choice, make a higher choice. Practice making your highest choice in conjunction with your spirit. Experience freedom, joy and complete creative control as the director of your show.


Peace,
-Mikel

Because Of Our Spirit

Because of our Spirit we sometimes
experience extraordinary happiness in our
life, even when it seems impossible with
our physical energy and mental power.

-Ven Thupten Gyaltsen

This quote came across me recently. I cannot tell you much about its author. Some time back I outsourced my brain's storage capacity for facts and figures to Google. It's not a service they knowingly offer, but I use it that way anyway, and it appears that my global neural Google-net knows virtually nothing about the author of this quote. Article links that came up in searches, led to nowhere. Perhaps some of my esteemed readers know more of Ven Thupten Gyaltsen. Until then, I will just keep this quote as my company when I think of her or him. It is likely a 'he' since the name seems popular with Buddhist monks.

Because of our Spirit we sometimes
experience extraordinary happiness in our
life, even when it seems impossible with
our physical energy and mental power.

-Ven Thupten Gyaltsen

Experiencing moments described by Ven, I've had quite a few, some related to moments where I have found myself in a darker place, challenged in the physical realm, manifesting poor quality visions or manifesting quality visions of being poor, with purpose. In some of those moments, I have experienced this happiness that simply serves to remind me of 2 things, whatever you are experiencing now too shall pass, and happiness at attracting the experiences that awaken me further from the illusion of this reality. You are as spiritually rich as you allow yourSelf to be.

Because of our Spirit we sometimes
experience extraordinary happiness in our
life, even when it seems impossible with
our physical energy and mental power.

-Ven Thupten Gyaltsen

As I climb the steps to summit this un-summitable (forgive me) peak, and sometimes turn to look back at the path I have tread, sometimes lingering, sometimes accelerating, I am re-minded of precious moments, when I flagged, when I quit or sat aside for a time. Times when I pursued distractions, or seemingly so, and spun circles in time, for a while, chasing that which does not serve my-self or my purpose, spending Energy that drained me physically and mentally, only to be lifted up by Spirit, and made to see anew, to see the next step, and to take it.

Because of our Spirit we sometimes
experience extraordinary happiness in our
life, even when it seems impossible with
our physical energy and mental power.

-Ven Thupten Gyaltsen

The further I tread along my way, the more I appreciate my purpose, the more I see and the less I know. I started out thinking that enlightenment was attainment of a thing, the realisation of an objective, a project to be broken into milestones, effort required and charted, this being my human nature. Along the way, it came to me, or came upon me, rather it came from within me that I was already there. The moment passed, but came back again later, and then more often. I continued walking my path, believing the path to be the project, the milestones, the price to pay for attainment of a higher place within me. This was not so, it is not so.

Because of our Spirit we sometimes
experience extraordinary happiness in our
life, even when it seems impossible with
our physical energy and mental power.

-Ven Thupten Gyaltsen

Further along amongst hundreds and thousands of realisations, AHA's and Oh Wow!'s, as the combination to access my soul was unraveled more and more, the path I walked became my purpose, it was still the same path but what started as a search for enlightenment, became my purpose, that same path. Enlightenment is an evolving concept, do not be the fool who, like me, believed it to be a stopping point, an end place. There is no end to it. Just as there are no end to the stars, no end to the number of galaxies seen or unseen, no end to the All That Is, no end to the Love of God as you know it for your-self. There is no end to it, and there is no end to your purpose.

May your Spirit cause you to experience Extra-ordinary Happiness, even when you perceive it as impossible... Im-possible... I'm possible... I am possibility...

Peace and Love to all who read this - change the world,
-Mikel

Follow Creativity, Find A Creator

The best messages speak to you in layers, meaning that a single message, quote, painting, poem, tapestry..... art form; will speak to different levels of your consciousness. A message may initially strike your moral centre, but reveal truth in areas and relationships of exploration in your life.

The truth is that the entity that is you (soul etc), is never seeking to communicate with the you that is body & mind, simply at one layer or through one medium. Why should you? Wow, you are such a multi-faceted, multi-talented, multiply-enabled-creator that to confine your-self to only a single channel of communication would simply be a ridiculous waste or time and space. At least that is my view =) afterall we are of Everything.

By following creativity you will always find a creator, usually more than one. While this may at first seem like an obtuse statement, is indeed quite simple. Creativity, in all it's wonderfully exploited and expressed forms, will always produce a message, an expression of creation, choice and passion. Yes of course, this is the artist, the first creator, the simple view and easily understood.

What of the observer? What of those of us that have not yet chosen to be "artistically inclined"? We know from quantum physics that the simple observation of an event, changes it's result. Explore this, if you have not, quantum physics is allowing science to catch up to what spirituality has been expressing for ages and creating new perspectives on what is known. These are exciting times.

Well, what of our precious observer? What of you? Just like a rock on the shore, being washed over by the waves of creativity, each wave changes your perception. Each "artistic impression" has impact on who you are and who you define yourself as. Your observation of the given piece of creativity, changes you forever. You cannot influence that you are changed, but you can impact how you are changed by the views you take on as the observer, the messages you choose to integrate.

Another perspective to add, why should this only be viewed as the domain of artists, poets and writers? Are you not the creator of your life, the creator of your very reality? Is your creativity not the making and manifesting of your identity, your purpose, to be the full expression of your conscious self?

Remember our good friend Gandhi: "My life is my message"

What is your life?

Peace,
-Mikel

Death And A Necessary Lack Of Fear

In the western world especially, we are raised to see death, or the end of our current frame of existence in this realm as the literal and formal end to all that is. Religiously, many Christian faiths will then step in with their different versions of the hereafter and placate millions with their old and tiresome renditions of heaven, hell and in some cases purgatory.

Of course, you create your reality so if you wish to perceive your life as having been led in the context of "evil" and that little devils with pitchforks and fiery breath will chase you around into eternity, be my guest.

Today I'm not presenting you with a new view, or offering you something to consider. I am simply relating some of my thoughts regarding what we call death and the possibilities it holds for me, in the reality I have chosen.

First, death is of course not the end, but it is an end. In all my studies, I have come across interesting theories and supposedly scientific facts, all related to death. Apparently at the time of death the body loses 8 grams, some would have us believe this is the soul vacating the premises. A movie was made about it too.

I will not debate the "facts" of the hereafter, but I celebrate my death already. As I posted recently to another blog, I cannot wait to die. It will be such a joyous moment for me, the marking of another lifetime of achievement and of walking further down the path I tread as an entity, always towards the light.

There are no "angels" when I die, perhaps there is the perception of a light and a tunnel as popularised by many. These are small matters to me. My death, rather should I say, my leaving this form I now occupy, are a rite of passage. As surely as summer follows spring, and the fall follows summer, so too winter follows the fall. All of life is a cycle.

From the time you are born, there is an ending in sight. Strangely the fact that I died during childbirth, and was resuscitated has no insight for me, other than reinforcing my sense of knowing that I have purpose, and for as long as I breath air into this body I will obligate my mind and body to assist my fulfillment of it.

Yes, I celebrate death. However, I do not envy pain. Many tie death and pain into one concept, most unnecessarily. This does not have to be, yet the choice is yours. If I choose pain in death, let it be to serve a purpose. Ultimately, with or without pain I will enter my nirvana and be gloriously entangled with All That Is.

Do not misinterpret any of my messages here. Western mindsets are prone to misinterpret talk of the desire for death as a sign of the suicidal persona. Brothers and sisters, all of us walking this earth are suicidal, just look around you, look outside, see how you treat the earth and those around you. Suicide, whether fast or slow, whether induced by your action, or inaction against those that act, is suicide. Perhaps you see the way we treat the earth as being something outside of you? We are all one, we are all throwing pebbles into an infinite pond, the ripples of your stones in that pond, ultimately, touch all others.

So, no, I am not suicidal in any traditional sense of the word. My life is here and purpose is yet unfulfilled and so I celebrate my death as well as my life. I have no fear of death and I have no fear of life. Although I do not endorse suicide as a means of getting off the train of life early, I do respect it as a choice that some make.

As you walk through this day, perhaps you might wonder to yourself, on the meaning of death. If you knew in advance that your death was imminent, would you care about your credit card debt, would you care about how your boss treats you, would you care about getting to work on time instead of 5 more minutes with the kids?

To Life,
-Mikel

Change Your Experience, At Will

Last week I touched on the difference between knowledge and experience, also mentioning time as a part of the equation. This article is a continuation of that theme.

The truth of your, my, or anyone's experience is that we can change it, at will, at any time, with intention. Who do you choose to be today? This turns out to be a double-edged sword for many of us, because in western culture, impatience is an in-bred expectation and heavily leveraged by marketers.

People have been brought up to expect instant results, and this is re-inforced by most of the media we consume. Also, amongst all the trappings of a materially oriented society, our connection to spirituality and our own core essence, becomes less important to most people.

A BMW can look awfully attractive compared to a life as a Buddhist monk, considering we don't see a lot of commercials that make us desire following the Buddha. As I've mentioned in many past articles, you can make any change you desire in your life, now; however you should first accept responsibility for the choices you have made previously.

Clear out your attic and get rid of your past garbage. Forgive your bad choices and their outcomes. Become detached from them forever after. A simple process, mastered with practice, and being human you will have plenty of opportunity for more of that!

" To understand everything, you must forgive everything "- Buddha

In going through your clearing house process, you will achieve a sense of clarity in the level of responsibility you accept for your actions. The ultimate realisation, in this area, is that you are totally responsible for every person, situation, emotion and manifestation in your life right now.

Now it becomes much simpler to change your experience at will. The above steps essentially force you into the practice of monitoring your thoughts, in so doing you begin to recognise those thoughts that you no longer desire or that lead you away from that which you seek.

These should simply be blessed and discarded. To change your experience, cultivate and expand on those thoughts that are in line with who you choose to be. I am not talking about what you desire to have in your life, that is a seperate but not unrelated conversation.

Instead who do you choose to be, what state of mind and soul do you desire, while you experience the doing-ness part of your life? Happy, sad, ecstatic?

Most of us are familiar with the practice of detachment, but how many of us put this to use? Become detached from results, detached from your expectations. Note that you are at cause in all things as your starting point, express your emotional or material desires, begin to live in that space regularly. Experience how it would feel in your imagination, to be happy all the time, to live in joy and balance in all moments, to drive the BMW and be a monk at the same time. Whatever it is you desire, but do so without attachment.

For some this can be a very difficult concept to practice. The way of desiring an outcome, without being attached to it. Flow with it.

Realise though that within you lies the key and access to infinite power by your connection with all that is. Within each of us lies the potential to be the beggar, or the millionaire walking past him, in terms of material riches and especially in terms of life experience and the quality of it.

You can change your life experience at will, being happy and poor or being miserable and poor. One will give you the chance to lift yourself from your reality, the other will ground you to it. What and who do you choose to be today?

Peace,
-Mikel

Manifest Effortlessly

This weekend I was gently reminded of the power we each command, most of us obliviously, some of us partially aware and a very few that are in full co-operation with it. I do not count myself as one of the very few who have mastered it. I do not know of anyone I have met that has, although I have studied the teachings and read the books of some of it's grand co-operators, both male and female.

Manifesting your reality, creating your day one at a time, living in the essence of creation in each moment as it unfolds and co-operating with the Universe in creating all that is around you. This is what I am talking about.

We all have this power, or at least access to it. Most of us are on auto-pilot, working, feeding our children, paying for mortgages and debt, details, all details. Fact is, all these details were manifested by you, whether you are conscious of it or not. Whether you believe in what I'm saying of not. Your belief in this is not required for it to be true, but your ignorance can cost you time, and in this relative world, that is one resource you have little control over - the apparent and inevitable sequential flow of time.

Now let me get a little crazier. Let's say you have read this up to now and thought, "Ok sure I agree, where to now?" or "Well I can reason that out but what do I do?". The crazy part, is that manifesting and creating an effortless reality, is just that, effortless or virtually so. Recently I was reminded in the movie "The Secret" which I will write on another day, that it is just as easy to manifest a cup of coffee as it is to manifest a Mercedes Benz, in universal terms.

If you are the beginner to this process, there are many paths you can take to learn this and create for yourself. Simply put, choose effortlessness, choose ease, choose abundance. If until now you have been shackled by beliefs that make you feel as if every good thing in your life must be earned with sweat and hard work, fine, you no longer have to choose that reality or those beliefs.

Choice, free will, it is yours to make whenever you .... choose. Realise that you are connected to the All Of It All, realise that co-operation with the forces that be, is your secret. I choose effortlessness, and behold, as it is spoken, so is it done, thank You.

A mantra/affirmation for you to experiment with:
"I choose to experience an effortless day
Everything I touch, see or do, goes my way"

In Peace,
-Mikel

Wherever There Is Attachment...

Wherever there is attachment,
association with it
brings endless misery.

- Gampopa



When I hear I see,
When I see I hear.

- Zen koan

The Happiness Of Others

The more we care for the happiness of others,

the greater is our own sense of well-being.

-Dalai Lama

If you are irritated by every rub,
how will your mirror be polished?

-Djalal ad-Din Rumi

Faith Is An Oasis In The Heart

Faith is an oasis in the heart,
which can never be reached
by the caravan of thinking.

-Kahlil Gibran

This great poet influenced me indirectly from a young age. I don't remember exactly when his words arrived in our house, but it was a time of self discovery for my mother. Although I haven't often referred back to his work over the years, each time that I have, has always been in reflection after a time of growth. Kahlil's words are always positive to me, and feel like a kind uncle patting me on the back for a job well done and as an affirmation of following the right path.

Taking the above words and reflecting on these momentarily. I know them, I knew them, they came back to me a few days ago in my wonderings. Applying rational thought to faith, to belief, is an almost certain shortcut back to the bottom of the mountain you faithfully climb.

Rational thought, especially western rational thought, will imply less connection between your position in life, your worries and triumphs when lined up with the energy that created galaxies and universes, mountains, rivers and nature.

Faith is a realm only you can know and experience for yourself. Thought or rational thought has a commonality to it, something we all agree on, for example rational thought implies that playing with a knife means that you run the risk of cutting yourself. Faith on the other hand can imply that you know that you know that you know, that you can bring yourself no harm, or that you simply trust in yourself, your higher self, God, to not allow you to come to harm.

This quote is a great reminder to trust in the resources within you, within your personal connection to the all-that-is, to stay away from rational thought as projected by those around you who do not relate to your connection, in the form of family and friends, media, tv, junk internet (yes I love the internet for all the knowledge and wisdom it has but there are plenty of ways to waste time also).

I leave you with a quote of my own, inspired of course by my higher self, since I cannot claim credit for such a lovely thing:

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

-Mikel

Your comments are always welcomed.

Peaceful travels,
-Mikel

When The Teacher Is Ready The Student Appears

Have you heard of the saying "When the student is ready, the teacher appears"? Most have. I believe there is a different spin to look at on this old proverb. Twist it around for a second and read it as "When the teacher is ready, the student appears". It's meaning changes, but perhaps not by much.

Consider another truism, that we teach what we most need to learn. By teaching whatever it is to another, we echo that wisdom to others around us, who in turn are the reflection of ourselves.

This last weekend I worked at a customer site for 18 hours straight, together with one of their employees who is a wonderful individual, even though he is somewhat trapped in the clutches of the material world. Ultimately he will figure it out.

Working together required us to be very technical and focussed for short periods of time, followed by long periods with nothing to do other than talk, while we waited for the results to come back. In that time we shared much and the conversation easily drifted to philosophy and spiritual matters.

"When the teacher is ready, the student appears" serves a few purposes as a subject. First as a reminder that we all are teachers, whether we choose to realise this or not, as well as being students. A good student will push a teacher to articulate and analyse their own repetitious teachings in new ways, allowing the teacher in turn to learn from the student. Therefore the second point to note is that the relationship is not one sided. There are other points, perhaps you have a few to share in the comments.

During the passing of this evening of working with this wonderful fellow, he delved into my interpretation of the known and the unknowable, and caused me to remember that no matter how much you desire to help someone, it is never possible to force someone to accept your view. This I knew from experience, however, the reminder was there and appreciated. For this I am grateful.

As we talked, the more I saw that although he had the capacity to release himself more from his trappings, and review his life to the path he desired, that he was not yet ready to do so. The right was not mine to push it and I did not. I take this as a sign of progress and growth within me.

A good student, will always attract good teachers or those that are relevant to the point in space-time in which that individual has chosen to locate themselves.

Today I am grateful for all my teachers that have been, will been and are in my life, as well as grateful for all the students, obvious and not-so-obvious, that have crossed my path. I bless them all, and you my reader as you move on through your day.

Peace,
-Mikel

The Divided Whole

Once the whole is divided,
the parts need names.
There are already enough names.

-Tao te Ching

Man is setting out to satisy needs
that mean more to him than simply
nourishment and clothing.

He is embarking on a rediscovery of himself.

-Rabindranath Tagore

Knowledge, Experience & Time

As I drove to work this morning, the sun not yet cresting the rows of building, apartments and office blocks along the highway, I contemplated. Driving, especially alone, is one of my favorite times to contemplate matters (& energies) of all magnitudes. It is so easy to sit in the slow lane, behind a predictable driver, and allow myself to disappear into the glow of those red tail lights inching along, and to experience God there. Calming, even just to think of.

Today I will write on knowledge and experience many have yet to consider, and perhaps it will seem obtuse. The biggest factor in this potential confusion is that time, knowledge and experience are not sequential, although they can be and they are not necessarily related, unless you decide that they are. More on this later.

Firstly, knowledge and experience. It is a simple relationship, we either “know of” something (knowledge) or we know something experientially, which implies an experience took place, we were involved and grew from that, and thereby gained experiential knowledge. Great!

======sidebar======
As a side note, upon recently re-listening to my Conversations With God audio books, another phrase jumped at me – essentially suggesting that we replace the word ‘learn’ with ‘grow’, since we have nothing to learn, based on where we come from etc etc. Not meant for this article, but explaining a little on my favored choice of the word ‘grow’
======sidebar======

So for example, let’s take something really materialistic, like being rich. I might have knowledge of what being rich is, from the media, magazines, internet sites and from observing the lifestyles of those around me that are assumedly “rich”, at least in a money sense. Fair enough, I have this knowledge, but until I experience that knowledge, it is only that…

If we are to take what so many spiritual and motivational teachers tell us then it possible to experience something, without actually undergoing the ‘doing’ part. Many in fact say that it is essential to simulate as near as possible the experience you desire to have, in order to attract that, which is part of the Law of Attraction. Here I’m introducing the element of time, only to show that time plays no role who you are being.

Taking a spiritual angle then, we might say that ‘being rich’ is really about experiencing ‘abundance’ in material form, and in order to attract this experience, this matter; we should go from knowledge, to acting out the experience as far as possible through our senses, and then if still have not attracted that, to then act out that which we desire, whether it be abundance, love, happiness or any other state of being.

In this way, to move from knowing a thing, to experiencing a thing, we have tools and insight available to help and guide us in experiencing something before we actually have it, and in fact the richer and more detailed your ‘faked’ experience, the more real you actual experience will be.

There are many paths to the truth and this is just one, but it is popular in the western mindset, so I have focused on it.

Back to time though, it actually plays no role. If you accept that you can manufacture experiences, then you can also change your mind on anything, or change your stated perception, instantly. What do I mean? Simply put, if you are currently angry, you can stop this, and choose a new experience, perhaps happiness, even in the middle of stressful situation. Just like that, in less time than it takes to snap your fingers.

This is an exciting realization, and I will expand on it over the next few days… In the meantime I would love to hear your comments.

Until then,

Peace,
-Mikel