posted May 26, 2015 01:08 PM            

A professor of philosophy stood before his class with some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly he picked up a large empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks about two inches in diameter. He then asked the students if the jar was full.

They agreed that it was full.

So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly and watched as the pebbles rolled into the open areas between the rocks. The professor then asked the students again if the jar was full.

They chuckled and agreed that it was indeed full this time.

The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. The sand filled the remaining open areas of the jar. “Now,” said the professor, “I want you to recognize that this jar signifies your life. The rocks are the truly important things, such as family, health and relationships. If all else was lost and only the rocks remained, your life would still be meaningful. The pebbles are the other things that matter in your life, such as work or school. The sand signifies the remaining “small stuff” and material possessions.

If you put sand into the jar first, there is no room for the rocks or the pebbles. The same can be applied to your lives. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are truly important.

Pay attention to the things in life that are critical to your happiness and well-being. Take time to get medical check-ups, play with your children, go for a run, write your grandmother a letter. There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, or fix the disposal. Take care of the rocks first – things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just pebbles and sand.

posted May 26, 2015 01:20 PM            

The old Master instructed an unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and Then to drink it.ItalicHow does it taste?" the Master asked.

"Awful," spat the apprentice.

The Master chuckled and then asked the young man to take another handful of salt and put it in the lake.

The two walked in silence to the nearby lake and when the apprentice swirled his handful of salt into the lake.

The old man said, "Now drink from the lake."

As the water dripped down the young man's chin, the Master asked, "How does it taste?"

"Good!" remarked the apprentice.

"Do you taste the salt?" asked the Master.

"No," said the young man.

posted May 27, 2015 04:49 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by SDragon:
Be a Lake by Unknown
========================================

The old Master instructed an unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and Then to drink it.ItalicHow does it taste?" the Master asked.

"Awful," spat the apprentice.

The Master chuckled and then asked the young man to take another handful of salt and put it in the lake.

The two walked in silence to the nearby lake and when the apprentice swirled his handful of salt into the lake.

The old man said, "Now drink from the lake."

As the water dripped down the young man's chin, the Master asked, "How does it taste?"

"Good!" remarked the apprentice.

"Do you taste the salt?" asked the Master.

"No," said the young man.

The Master sat beside this troubled young man, took his hands, and said, "The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains the same, exactly the same. But the amount we taste the 'pain' depends on the container we put it into. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things ....."

---

posted June 01, 2015 04:54 PM            

As I was parked in my friends driveway waiting for him to come out, I sat in my car and looked around at the natural ravine that was beside his house and put my mind into an appreciative mindset. As I was in this relaxed state of mind and just really feeling the experience of the wind, the breeze, how it swayed the grass, the branches, the trees, a thought came to my mind from what a psychic once told me, "You're on some of your last journeys". This thought seemed to penetrate deeply into me and even though there was a profound sense of peace, it still felt sad - almost as if I would really miss the earth and everything on it. Beyond all the dramas that human experience involves, we sometimes truly do miss the pure joy of just being.

Beyond the pain and limitations of the physical body, can we appreciate that we even have one?
Beyond the pain and fear of the emotional body, can we touch the experience and be glad and courageous?
Beyond the pain and psychological stress of the mental body, can we find out what it truly means to be human?
Beyond the spiritual problem of aloneness, can we touch the infinite and be happy?

posted June 04, 2015 05:02 PM            

Quoting from "http://www.masculinity-movies.com/articles/king-warrior-magician-lover", he explains it best when he writes:

"We said that the defining characteristic of the Boy is his enslavement to his ego. The defining characteristic of the Man is his mastery of it. The Man has subjugated his ego and turned it into an ally. This is impossible unless the crisis of ashes has first been lived or worked through. Any boy who is to become a man must feel his fearful way through the utter pointlessness of everything to serve the world. And it is of course exactly because our lives are so safe and comfortable that most of us never grow up to serve, never leaving boyhood behind."

The King

The King archetype in its fullness possesses the qualities of order, of reasonable and rational patterning, of integration and integrity in the masculine psyche. It stabilizes chaotic emotion and out-of-control behaviors. It gives stability and centered-ness. It brings calm. And in its “fertilizing” and centered-ness, it meditates vitality, life-force, and joy. It brings maintenance and balance. It defends our own sense of inner order, our own integrity of being and of purpose, our own central calmness about who we are, and our essential unassailability and certainty in our masculine identity. It looks upon the world with a firm but kindly eye. It sees others in all their weakness and in all their talent and worth. It honors them and promotes them. It guides them and nurtures them towards their own fullness of being. It is not envious, because it is secure, as the King, in its own worth. It rewards and encourages creativity in us and in others.

In its central incorporation and expression of the Warrior, it represents aggressive might when that is what is needed when order is threatened. It also has the power of inner authority. It knows and discerns (its Magician aspect) and acts out of this deep knowingness. It delights in us and in others (its Lover aspect) and shows this delight through words of authentic praise and concrete actions that enhance our lives.

The dream of one young man, right on the cusp of his making the transition from boyhood to manhood, illustrates this moment of the Hero’s death and shows what form, eventually, his new masculine maturity might take. It shows the coming on line of the King energy – not to be fully realized for years to come. Here’s the dream:

"I am a soldier of fortune in ancient China. I’ve been creating a lot of trouble, hurting a lot of people, disturbing the order of the empire for my own profit and benefit. I’m a king of outlaw, a kind of mercenary.

I’ve been chased through the countryside, through a forest, by soldiers of the Chinese army, the Chinese emperor’s men. We’re all dressed in some kind of scale armor, with bows and arrows and probably swords. I’m running through the woods, and I see a hole in the ground, the entrance to a cave, so I rush into it to hide. Once inside, I see that it is a long tunnel, I run along the tunnel. The Chinese army sees me go into the cave, and they run after me down the tunnel.

At the end of the tunnel, I see in the far distance a pale blue light streaming down from above, from what is probably an opening in the rock. As I get closer, I see that the light is falling into a chamber, an underground chamber, and in the chamber is a very green garden. And standing in the middle of the garden is the Chinese emperor himself in his elaborate red and gold robes. There is nowhere for me to go. The army is closing on me from behind. I am forced into the presence of the emperor himself.

There is nothing to do but to kneel before him, to submit to him. I feel great humility, as though a phase of my life is over. He looks down at me with a fatherly compassion. He’s not angry with me at all. I feel from him that he has seen it all, that he has lived it all, all the adventures of life – poverty, wealth, women, wars, palace intrigues, betrayals and being betrayed, suffering and joy, everything in human life. It is out of this seasoned, very ancient, very experienced wisdom that he now treats me with compassion.
He says very gently, “You have to die. You will be executed in three hours.” I know that he is right. There is a bond between us. It’s as though he’s been in exactly my position before: he knows about these things. With a great feeling of peace and even happiness, I submit to my fate."

The Warrior

His control is, first of all, over his mind and attitudes: if these are right, the body will follow. A man accessing the Warrior archetype has “a positive mental attitude” as they say in sales training. This means that he has an unconquerable spirit, that he has great courage, that he is fearless, that he takes responsibility for his actions, and that he has self-discipline. Discipline means that he has the rigor to develop control and mastery over his mind and over his body, and that he has the capacity to withstand pain, both psychological and physical. He is willing to suffer to achieve what he wants to achieve.

The Warrior’s loyalty then and his sense of duty are to something beyond and other than himself and his own concerns. He lives not to gratify his personal needs and wishes or his physical appetites but to hone himself into an efficient spiritual machine, trained to bear the unbearable in the service of the transpersonal goal. This devotion to the transpersonal ideal or goal even to the point of personal annihilation leads a man to another of the Warrior’s characteristics. He is emotionally distant as long as he is in the Warrior. He looks at his tasks, his decisions, and his actions dispassionately and unemotionally. The Warrior is then able to act with less regard for his personal feelings: he will act more forcefully, swiftly, and efficiently with himself out of the way.

The Lover

If we are appropriately accessing the Lover, but keeping our Ego structures strong, we feel related, connected, alive, enthusiastic, compassionate, empathic, energized, and romantic about our lives, our goals, our work, and our achievements. It is the Lover who is the source of longings for a better world for ourselves and others. He is the idealist and the dreamer. He is the one who wants us to have an abundance of good things. The Lover keeps the other masculine energies humane, loving and related to each other and to the real life situation of human beings struggling in a difficult world. The King, the Warrior, the Magician as we’ve suggested, harmonize pretty well with each other. They do so because without the Lover, they are all essentially detached from life. They need the Lover to energize them, to humanize them, and to give them their ultimate purpose – love.

Many of us have so repressed the Lover in us that is has become very hard for us to feel passionate about anything in our lives. The trouble with most of us is not that we feel too much passion, but that we don’t feel our passion much at all. We don’t feel our joy. We don’t feel able to be alive and to live our lives the way we wanted to live them when we began. We may even think that feelings and, in particular, our feelings, are annoying encumbrances and inappropriate for a man. But let us not surrender our lives! Let us find the spontaneity and joy of life inside ourselves. Then not only will we live our lives more abundantly, but we will enable others to live, perhaps for the first time in their lives.

Conclusion

Much of the work is not new, and Carl Jung could be recognized as the ultimate orginator of the 21st century psychological archetypes, however for a new age, a new vehicle of expression may be required and for those that shy away from Psychology topics in general, King, Warrior, Magician and Lover is as close to a layman's version that can help you understand and reflect upon how you yourself is living the Male Macsculine Archetypes, as a boy or a man.

posted June 05, 2015 02:07 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by SDragon:
King, Magician, Lover, Warrior by Robert Moore
==========================================

Quoting from "http://www.masculinity-movies.com/articles/king-warrior-magician-lover", he explains it best when he writes:

"We said that the defining characteristic of the Boy is his enslavement to his ego. The defining characteristic of the Man is his mastery of it. The Man has subjugated his ego and turned it into an ally. This is impossible unless the crisis of ashes has first been lived or worked through. Any boy who is to become a man must feel his fearful way through the utter pointlessness of everything to serve the world. And it is of course exactly because our lives are so safe and comfortable that most of us never grow up to serve, never leaving boyhood behind."

The King

The King archetype in its fullness possesses the qualities of order, of reasonable and rational patterning, of integration and integrity in the masculine psyche. It stabilizes chaotic emotion and out-of-control behaviors. It gives stability and centered-ness. It brings calm. And in its “fertilizing” and centered-ness, it meditates vitality, life-force, and joy. It brings maintenance and balance. It defends our own sense of inner order, our own integrity of being and of purpose, our own central calmness about who we are, and our essential unassailability and certainty in our masculine identity. It looks upon the world with a firm but kindly eye. It sees others in all their weakness and in all their talent and worth. It honors them and promotes them. It guides them and nurtures them towards their own fullness of being. It is not envious, because it is secure, as the King, in its own worth. It rewards and encourages creativity in us and in others.

In its central incorporation and expression of the Warrior, it represents aggressive might when that is what is needed when order is threatened. It also has the power of inner authority. It knows and discerns (its Magician aspect) and acts out of this deep knowingness. It delights in us and in others (its Lover aspect) and shows this delight through words of authentic praise and concrete actions that enhance our lives.

The dream of one young man, right on the cusp of his making the transition from boyhood to manhood, illustrates this moment of the Hero’s death and shows what form, eventually, his new masculine maturity might take. It shows the coming on line of the King energy – not to be fully realized for years to come. Here’s the dream:

"I am a soldier of fortune in ancient China. I’ve been creating a lot of trouble, hurting a lot of people, disturbing the order of the empire for my own profit and benefit. I’m a king of outlaw, a kind of mercenary.

I’ve been chased through the countryside, through a forest, by soldiers of the Chinese army, the Chinese emperor’s men. We’re all dressed in some kind of scale armor, with bows and arrows and probably swords. I’m running through the woods, and I see a hole in the ground, the entrance to a cave, so I rush into it to hide. Once inside, I see that it is a long tunnel, I run along the tunnel. The Chinese army sees me go into the cave, and they run after me down the tunnel.

At the end of the tunnel, I see in the far distance a pale blue light streaming down from above, from what is probably an opening in the rock. As I get closer, I see that the light is falling into a chamber, an underground chamber, and in the chamber is a very green garden. And standing in the middle of the garden is the Chinese emperor himself in his elaborate red and gold robes. There is nowhere for me to go. The army is closing on me from behind. I am forced into the presence of the emperor himself.

There is nothing to do but to kneel before him, to submit to him. I feel great humility, as though a phase of my life is over. He looks down at me with a fatherly compassion. He’s not angry with me at all. I feel from him that he has seen it all, that he has lived it all, all the adventures of life – poverty, wealth, women, wars, palace intrigues, betrayals and being betrayed, suffering and joy, everything in human life. It is out of this seasoned, very ancient, very experienced wisdom that he now treats me with compassion.
He says very gently, “You have to die. You will be executed in three hours.” I know that he is right. There is a bond between us. It’s as though he’s been in exactly my position before: he knows about these things. With a great feeling of peace and even happiness, I submit to my fate."

The Warrior

His control is, first of all, over his mind and attitudes: if these are right, the body will follow. A man accessing the Warrior archetype has “a positive mental attitude” as they say in sales training. This means that he has an unconquerable spirit, that he has great courage, that he is fearless, that he takes responsibility for his actions, and that he has self-discipline. Discipline means that he has the rigor to develop control and mastery over his mind and over his body, and that he has the capacity to withstand pain, both psychological and physical. He is willing to suffer to achieve what he wants to achieve.

The Warrior’s loyalty then and his sense of duty are to something beyond and other than himself and his own concerns. He lives not to gratify his personal needs and wishes or his physical appetites but to hone himself into an efficient spiritual machine, trained to bear the unbearable in the service of the transpersonal goal. This devotion to the transpersonal ideal or goal even to the point of personal annihilation leads a man to another of the Warrior’s characteristics. He is emotionally distant as long as he is in the Warrior. He looks at his tasks, his decisions, and his actions dispassionately and unemotionally. The Warrior is then able to act with less regard for his personal feelings: he will act more forcefully, swiftly, and efficiently with himself out of the way.

The Lover

If we are appropriately accessing the Lover, but keeping our Ego structures strong, we feel related, connected, alive, enthusiastic, compassionate, empathic, energized, and romantic about our lives, our goals, our work, and our achievements. It is the Lover who is the source of longings for a better world for ourselves and others. He is the idealist and the dreamer. He is the one who wants us to have an abundance of good things. The Lover keeps the other masculine energies humane, loving and related to each other and to the real life situation of human beings struggling in a difficult world. The King, the Warrior, the Magician as we’ve suggested, harmonize pretty well with each other. They do so because without the Lover, they are all essentially detached from life. They need the Lover to energize them, to humanize them, and to give them their ultimate purpose – love.

Many of us have so repressed the Lover in us that is has become very hard for us to feel passionate about anything in our lives. The trouble with most of us is not that we feel too much passion, but that we don’t feel our passion much at all. We don’t feel our joy. We don’t feel able to be alive and to live our lives the way we wanted to live them when we began. We may even think that feelings and, in particular, our feelings, are annoying encumbrances and inappropriate for a man. But let us not surrender our lives! Let us find the spontaneity and joy of life inside ourselves. Then not only will we live our lives more abundantly, but we will enable others to live, perhaps for the first time in their lives.

Conclusion

Much of the work is not new, and Carl Jung could be recognized as the ultimate orginator of the 21st century psychological archetypes, however for a new age, a new vehicle of expression may be required and for those that shy away from Psychology topics in general, King, Warrior, Magician and Lover is as close to a layman's version that can help you understand and reflect upon how you yourself is living the Male Macsculine Archetypes, as a boy or a man.

"Don't do something because of a reward or expectation - do it because it's the right thing to do."

---

posted June 08, 2015 04:40 PM            

----

The Magician

The Magician archetype, in concert with the observing Ego, keeps us insulated from the overwhelming power of the other archetypes. It is the mathematician and the engineer in each of us that regulates the life functions of the psyche as a whole. It knows the enormous force of the psyche’s inner dynamics and how to channel them for maximum benefit. It knows the unbelievable force of the “sun” within, and it knows how to channel that sun’s energy for maximum benefit. The Magician pattern regulates the internal energy flows of the various archetypes for the benefit of the individual lives.

The Magician energy is present in the Warrior archetype in the form of his clarity of thinking, which we’ve already discussed in some detail. The Magician alone does not have the capacity to act. That is the Warrior’s specialty. But he does have the capacity to think. Whenever we are faced with what seems like an impossible decision in our daily lives – who to promote in the company when there are difficult and complex political considerations to be taken into account, how to deal with our son’s lack of motivation in school, how to design a particular home so as to meet both the clients’ specifications and city codes, how much to reveal to an analyst and about the meaning of his dreams, when we see him headed for a crisis, even how to budget in tight financial circumstances – whenever we do these things, make these decisions with careful and insightful deliberation, we are accessing the Magician.

posted June 11, 2015 11:17 AM            

===================================================

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

posted June 11, 2015 11:18 AM            

=======================================================================================

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be critical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

posted July 04, 2015 09:30 PM            

==================================

What is it in us that blocks our connection with the spiritual depths? If heaven is real, why am I not in contact with it? All religions and paths address this central question, under a variety of names, the most common today in the West being “ego.” The term ego, in this context, alludes to our deeply ingrained self-referential, self-seeking disposition, our well-hidden and highly adaptable attitude that life revolves around me and mine. Ego cuts us off from other people, from Nature, from God, from our authentic self, from our true responsibility, and from fulfilling our destiny. Our ego is the great usurper. It focuses on our local independence, falsely presuming it to be a global independence. The ego convinces us that we are truly separate beings with ultimately separate will, having no inherent connection with other people or with God.

Our ego installs us at the center of the universe, separate from all and enslaved by time. Dwelling on our past history, our conditioning, our grudges, our manufactured identity, our personality, or on our future hopes, dreams, fears, anxieties, desires, and pressures, ego creates a constant torrent of mental structures, each of which proclaim “This is me.” In childhood we become so involved and enamored with the growing arsenal of our ego, that we unquestioningly assume it is who we are. That insidious assumption constitutes the ego's iron grip on us.

This ego, this false pretender, whenever it arises grabs the seat of honor at the core of our being. It purports to speak for the whole of us, even though our various parts lack integration. It adopts the voice and desires of whatever part of us pushes itself temporarily to the top of the heap. So for example, our ego, under the influence of one part of us, “decides” to do something, but later under the influence of another part, we find ourselves doing just the opposite. I may think “I am going to quit smoking tomorrow.” But tomorrow my hand, not caring what my mind thought yesterday, reaches for a cigarette. The pretender to the throne does not bear the royal seal, does not have the power it ascribes to itself.

Why is it that the ego, or separate self, produces such a major difficulty in the spiritual path, indeed THE major difficulty? The answer can be found in the subtlety of the place occupied by ego and I. That place is not readily visible, even to our inner eye. It lies in the realm of Will, more interior than all our thought, emotion, and sensory experience, more interior than our awareness or consciousness itself, more interior than our mind. Ego and I reside in the place of who we are, that in us which chooses and decides, or abdicates choosing and deciding. A thought that says, “I will …,” masquerades as the source of decision. When this does represent an actual decision, the true source is will itself. Our will, however, usurped by the self-centered ego, an aberration of will, enters into a wrong and self-referential mode of working. Our true I, our true will, does not act by force, but rather by the cooperative assent of our various parts.. The uncooperative ego can thus come and stand in the place of the I, hiding and splitting off our authentic I from the rest of us. Under the influence of ego, we believe ourselves to be our own source. It turns out that, although we are indeed our own source, that very source is the Source of All.

Religions and paths portray the nature of our egoism and how to deal with it in one of two quite distinct modes. Usually, and to our misfortune, the ways reify and solidify ego into a something, an enemy, which must be overcome, which must die, which inherently resides in our tainted nature, which must be purified. True enough. One cannot argue with the accumulated wisdom of great religions. For our modern culture, though, the notion that our ego must die seems frightening. More importantly, the notion that we harbor inherent spiritual taints gets interpreted by our self-bashing, insecure psychology to mean that we are bad, or at least inadequate — something that we in the West are often trained to believe from childhood on. We believe we are not good enough. So we don the knowledge of being corrupt to our core as a mantle of supposed wisdom, and flock to those that teach it. Then the religious teaching about egoism simply gets co-opted by the self-denigrating side of our ego, eagerly adopted and accepted as yet another weakness. We hang our heads and beat our breasts and feel the better (or worse) for it. Unfortunately, all this only strengthens our egoism and leads us into an endless cycle, akin to a dog chasing its tail.

Casting our ego as the enemy in a holy war and winning that battle is an exceedingly difficult proposition, primarily because the ego proves to be a most subtle adversary. In fact, the ego will even join the battle against itself. It will take it on and say “this is wonderful, I’m going to battle against ego, I will become free, I will be wonderful, I will be better than I am now, and I will be better than other people, because I will be a highly evolved spiritual being.” Pretense, for example, cannot solve the problem of egoism. Acting humble does not make us humble. Non-egoism cannot be added on from the outside: it must be subtracted from us, from within.

The ego happily joins our forces in the great battle. As an enemy, it infiltrates our lines, wearing our own uniform, its soldiers and officers indistinguishable from ours. How does one fight a battle against such a devious and resourceful enemy? For most of us, it comes to nothing but another heap of suffering as we merely fight ourselves in the name of spirituality and sink more deeply than ever into the morass of self-centeredness. Only the rarest of souls find a way through this conundrum.

An alternative, but also traditional view casts ego in an entirely different perspective, not as an enemy, but as an illusion, and invites us to see our ego for what it is: an empty, ephemeral sham, a hall of mirrors, a self-referential and insubstantial web. The rise of Buddhism in the West is, in no small part, due to this kinder yet no less incisive and perhaps more tractable formulation of the problem of egoism.

Our belief in our ego, or separate self, is to a large extent learned from society. All the people around us labor under a self-centered perspective on life, which naturally devolves to impressionable children. Repeatedly shining the light of awareness directly on this sense of separateness gradually disperses it. But if we look carefully for our ego, for this separate self that we think we are, we shall not find it.

Am I my body? I can control my body, I can be aware of my body, and my awareness is greater than my body. So I am probably not my body.

Am I my feelings? I can be aware of my feelings and have some rudimentary influence on them, so I am probably not my feelings.

Am I my thoughts? My thoughts claim the title of I, thinking “I think,” “I am hungry.” But that “I” is just a thought, having no more substance than any other thought. It fools me though, this thought “I.” I believe in it. I believe it refers to something real and substantial, to the real me. But if I look at it clearly, I see it as only a thought with no real referent. At best, I may have a vague idea that I am some combination of my thoughts, feelings, and body. Again it proves empty to the insightful observer.

Am I my knowledge and experience, my habits and desires, my style - in short, my personality? But I can see all this at work in myself. And clearly, the one who sees seems closer to me than this whole complex of acquired patterns and inherited predispositions that I call my personality. So no, I am not my personality. I need my personality because only through it can I function in life, but I also need to remember that this personality is not who I am.

How about my awareness? Am I my awareness? Two problems here. First, I have some control over what I am aware of. So there must be something deeper. Second, the deeper I go into awareness, the less it is centered in me, so how can that be me as a separate entity, as an ego?

How about my attention? How about that in me that decides, my will? This is the subtlest of all. Yet again, the deeper I look into my will, the less it is centered in me, and the more it opens beyond me.

So wherever we look, we do not find this self, this separate person that takes our name, this self-important actor on the stage of our life. The more we engage in spiritual inner work, the more carefully and persistently we are able look into ourselves, and the more this once-compelling ego, this self disappears. Or perhaps we see that it never existed to begin with. Gradually, our belief in our ego assumes a porous quality, which rather than cutting us off from others, merely clouds our relationships intermittently. This separate self never was. Our devotion to it shrivels and we are left to truly be ourselves, to play our unique role in the larger story of our common life. When moments come in which we fall back into that trance of selfness, we feel uncomfortable, like in a shoe that no longer fits, and we let it go.

posted July 10, 2015 02:08 PM            

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Ever since leaving the corporate world about 8 years ago, I've lived mostly as a hermit, venturing out here and there, sharing my knowledge, expanding my understanding and growing emotionally and spiritually. Lately, as I've turned 36 years old, I've started wondering how I'll manage to have a future, with a family and children if I have nothing to show right now. I received my answer in a very serendipitous manner.

On Tuesday, I got a call from a company I do some computer work with and they were having a problem. So I went in Wednesday morning and fixed their problem, receiving a pay of $50, which isn't much, but I've learned to appreciate money as a gift from the universe. Viewing it as a gift, I decided to treat myself so I bought myself a $5 McDonald's Frappe, used $25 to get a haircut and spent $12 on lunch. Went to a nice Vietnamese place that I've been to before. As I was eating, I saw a dad with his two daughter's leaving the restaurant and as one of the daughter's was leaving, she saw a small box with fortune cookies and gave out a small yelp of pleasure and stuck her hand in, grabbing two or three. I found the innocence and pure happiness extremely heart-warming and as I was leaving, I grabbed one for myself.

The fortune cookie said "No need to worry! You will always have everything that you need."

Messages come in the strangest ways if we allow ourselves to be open to the universe.

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Story #2.

Most of my annual bills come due between July and August and usually I'm not too concerned but this year alone, I've had to spend over $2,000 fixing my car which has had issues, so I've become a bit more worried.

On Tuesday, I noticed a government deposit of $82.05 and just today I noticed another deposit of $287.00 equaling $369.05, which helps. And just 2 minutes ago, I received a text message from my cell phone provider letting me know that my annual renewal fee is up, with a cost of $355.95.

posted July 15, 2015 10:48 AM            

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Originally posted by the7thsphere

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