Wisdom from the Heart - Page 5
Following your bliss means being true to your self, the incarnated soul who has plans for this life, and who has connections ready and waiting to support those plans and provide opportunities. The true self is fundamentally loving, so be guided by that to recognize your life purpose.
When you’re feeling inspired and enthusiastic, and know what to do next, there’s no limit to what you can create.
Mindfulness is key to the ongoing evolution of humanity and the Dalai Lama teaches this practice well.
It helps when you can play the sitar like he does. But we can all find our beauty and love... just think of the compassionate things you do, the empathy you feel for people, the understanding you have, the way you listen openly, your heart reaching out.
Law of attraction at work. Positive vibes attract the same back, but of course there are many other loving people so it comes multiplied.
Who cannot have compassion for the vulnerability and naivety of a child? As we open our hearts to them, we see ourselves in them too, and become more open to flow healing compassion to our inner child, our ageless soul.
Such a person looks out only for himself, and sees values such as compassion and service as weakness.
Love leads to connection and oneness, acceptance and compassion. It’s the path we need to take, both to survive and to evolve. It’s the path that more and more people are taking, thank God.
Negative, “Oh no, it’s raining, how miserable.” Or positive, “Ah, it’s raining, just what the garden needs.” Our choice, our happiness.
Real learning takes place when you find out for yourself. The thrill of insight means you never forget, and the process of discovery means you truly understand. Another person’s insights are not the same and represent a lost opportunity.
When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.
Also because it’s true. You are not your past actions, nor even your present behavior. You’re responsible for them, but they are not who you are.
Also because it’s true. You are not your past actions, nor even your present behavior. You’re responsible for them, but they are not who you are.
Conflicts between sub-personalities - the parts of you that want one thing, another the opposite - are caused by identification and attachment. Like Buddha said, attachment is the cause of suffering. The real you is not attached, and you can find the real you by recognizing the loving aspect of your self, that which is non-judgmental and compassionate. That’s you.
Consciousness, our spiritual ground, is not the ego identity of our thinking body-mind personality, it lies behind, and when awake it is aware: witnessing, knowing and loving without judgment.
Perhaps it’s a good thing that we don’t all think the same and come to the same conclusion. Imagine that!
A rational, objective view may seem obvious to those that have it, but still be rare because others perceive through a curtain of prejudices, fixed beliefs, generalities, missing information and all of their own personal conditioning, education, influences, experiences and peculiarities.
And a “rational, objective” view can turn out to be false because it wasn’t so rational and objective after all, just seemed to be. Like David Sarnoff’s associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s: “The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?”
We all face many challenges - healing, relating, achieving, understanding - and each may be considered a hill we can climb for the better view and passage forward, or an immovable obstacle in our way that we are the victim of. As Edmund Hillary said, “It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.”
This is a fuller version of one of my favorite quotes. The first sentence is profound truth; the second and third explain how love underlies not only the divine but also the most down to earth. That’s what is meant by Oneness.
It’s like if you’re too busy to meditate, you’re too busy to live. Priorities have to be made consciously and deliberately, otherwise nothing intentional happens.
At the same time, the individual survival game is part and parcel of our identification with the human animal, and our temporary incarnation as a human being. I believe we come here both to experience life as individuals and to help evolve humanity toward a higher consciousness, which includes perception of our Oneness on relationship, community and cosmic dimensions. And so we have both ways of being, our choice in this moment.
It feels safe and comfortable in our familiar everyday box, but creativity and indeed our very freedom requires us to let go of such certainties, to feel free to take risks. If we risk nothing, we cannot learn, feel, change, grow or love.
Non-acceptance is resistance of what is. That which is resisted continues to persist, because it’s denied and held out of view. Best to accept your pimples and grouchy temper, learn to love yourself just as you are in full view, then address these issues if you want, but with compassion and a smile.
Keep the faith. After all that work and strong intention, there’s a good chance that if your heart’s really in it, some synchronicity will occur that rides you over the top of the wave, so then you can surf to victory!
The ‘reason why’ need not be a special life purpose you were born with and have remembered, it can also be your creation right now. But it needs to be something you want to do that inspires you deeply, that you feel with all your soul is the right thing for you, that expresses your very being... Then go for it! You create your destiny.
What really matters? Love is the only thing that really matters, so if we are guided by love, we know what to be passionate about: things that reflect our love.
We wake up from this dream when we die, but it’s not a bad idea to make it into a lucid dream and wake up a bit on a more regular basis, and direct your dream where you really want it to go.
Finding this precious space within is made easier by meditations such as those offered by the newly-expanded free program on Trans4mind:
Love is All You Need.
If you spend all day doing something you don’t really enjoy, just because it pays the bills: that’s not a good enough reason. You’ll look back at your life as a missed opportunity. I know “not everyone has the choice” - but is that really true?
It’s much easier to be mindful in a silent, still environment, such as the early hours of the morning, deep in the countryside, in a boat far from land, or walking in forest and mountains. One is free from negative energies, just the pure ones of nature and those from one’s loving heart.
By creating an exciting vision that is true to our nature and values, we can believe in it completely... then we are motivated to make it happen, and there are no hidden inner blocks to achievement.
Mistakes, you regret for a while, but you learned from them, they were necessary in a way, and time moves on. Whereas love unexpressed, or life purpose unfilled... those things are fundamental and remain in place.
Karma in this sense is like “responsibility” - we are responsible for our actions and the effects that result. If the effects are bad we feel bad; therefore karma is self-imposed, through inner-knowing. The undoing of karma is achieved by taking responsibility for those effects, and learning from what happened. The karma is clear when the space is filled with loving compassion.
Being adaptable to change may draw on strength and IQ but, I feel it demands an open mind above all, alongside other factors including emotional, social and spiritual intelligence, plus inherent virtues and talents.
The law of attraction will do it’s thing; but remember the LofA is not passive nor separate from you - you have to be at the right vibration yourself, you need to be involved and your heart open.
Make it happen now... There’s nothing stopping you but doubt.
Love is at the center of our being, therefore to all questions about philosophy and spirituality.
Your life purpose is not some chore handed down by decree, nor something you feel is expected of you, but rather it is your own creation, guided by your inner knowing. That is, the complete fulfillment of who you are, your true values and your potential for loving service.
Fair-weather friends are more like associates, who may not care that much about you. But some do and they are the true friends who stand by you, even when it’s uncomfortable or inconvenient for them. Because they love you.
Wanting to please others or not wanting to upset them is not a good enough reason to compromise what we feel and know is the right thing to do; otherwise we climb on the slippery slide to a life without integrity, which is really no life at all.
One idea stimulates another, and a couple of ideas can stimulate a whole family. So books get written, paintings created, and dreams achieved.
Since in our Higher Being we are a part of the ultimate Source and consciousness of all universes. I feel this is true, although in describing our philosophy we may use different terminology.
We create our reality, and the more of us do so together, the more physical that reality becomes. So by raising our consciousness together and actively, we can literally change the world we live in. See the new program,
Love is All You Need that we can all freely participate in.
It’s also largely in the moment, spontaneous, and surprise follows surprise. It can be as simple as making a cake or talking with a friend, taking a decision, seeing things a different way, or visualizing a story.
Communication (expression and listening) leads to understanding leads to empathy leads to compassion. Compromise and agreements become possible, the way ahead shared.
When you meditate, and experience your presence as a simple pure state of awareness and choice, then you begin to notice that it’s the ground of all your other states... emotions, thoughts, accomplishments, ways of being, roles, things you identify with, attachments. See the new program at Trans4mind:
Love is All You Need.
You need to know these things because nothing will make you happier than doing what you feel is true to and honoring of your inner self.
As I see it not all of our thoughts originate in the brain. The brain is a transducer between our external mind and the body’s nervous system. Where the external thoughts originate from is a non-verbal, aware mindfulness. Intuition and intention, with free will. However, the majority of brain activity is programmed or reactive internal thought, without free will. That’s how we’re able to function as a body-mind with complex lives… but we can always change these programs and reactions by choosing anew in the present, consciously.
Nothing esoteric about meditation. Just be there and observe your breath and thoughts and the present moment. Observe your body and mind as though at a distance, without any attachment. Just realize you are not those things you are observing - and at the same time, know you are everything that you are observing. Oneness - being nothing and everything - is enlightenment. You don’t have to be an Indian guru nor sit in a temple. And you don’t have to have an intellectual explanation.
When we make time for the things that support us - like meditation and exercise - we can better handle everything else in the day more effectively, and more than make up that time.
Optimism, hope and faith are all needed to create the life you want, the life of your dreams. If you really believe, and act on those beliefs, then anything and everything is possible.
We always have a motive for feeling and acting the way we do, a reason based on fulfilling our needs. The reason may or may not be misguided, intolerant, negative, exaggerating, illogical, shortsighted, mistaken or inconsiderate. But it’s our best shot at reasoning in that moment in time.
Apologies for quoting myself but this appeared in my consciousness the other day and I really like it.
It’s best not to hold back your tears, nor inhibit the tears of others. Tears mean we care. Our tears reflect the compassion we feel for ourselves or for others... we share the suffering of love lost, the triumph of love gained and the relief of love regained. We feel the exhilaration of freedom discovered, the contentment of hopes fulfilled, and the beauty of self expressed. In truth, tears are divine.
It’s true that agreement is not necessary for empathic communication. Same goes for liking. What is necessary is understanding, and the pre-requisite for that is listening - preferably listening from the heart, which means to recognize the person’s feelings and the needs they are based on.
Shadow and Light. Light is the truth and the reality, even if before we were only seeing the shadows.
You can stimulate your heart’s energy by sending loving kindness to the next person you see or think of. You are essentially a loving being; if your heart is overflowing with love, it is continually being refilled with more love from Source.
As I see it... The body-mind (human) game is about survival and so is ruled by fear. This can lead to a kind of hell. The spirit-mind (soul) game is about loving community and learning from experience. This can lead to paradise.
Speaking from the heart requires getting clear on your own feelings and recognizing your needs. Listening from your heart requires getting clear about another person’s feelings and understanding their needs. What you or they say and do may not be authentic and may be misguided, but at heart the individual is doing their best.
Love is the antidote to fear. Fear is the absence of love, just as the way that light illuminates and vanishes a shadow. Inject love and fear disappears... then we are naturally guided by our own inner truth, in place of the old and shady motivations that were governed by fear.
Of course there is a chain of cause and effect leading up to the present situation, in each of the circumstances you encounter in life, a chain that many other people may have been involved in. However you have a unique role to play in overcoming the resulting challenges that can improve your own position and effect everyone else for the better, if you are causative and creative enough... if YOU take responsibility.
It’s so easy to get into a groove, a safe place where we have found solutions to the challenges of survival and relationships, and then to just ride along - no longer creating our life. We may have the mild contentment of fears hidden away, dreams cast aside... but no way is that the path to happiness.
What’s the point of having enemies? Like anger, it’s a lose-lose. Better to communicate in an open way... then who knows, empathy and understanding may begin to creep in and defuse all that angst.
There is a caveat though. You can’t give back a new awareness gained UNLESS you fail to apply it and then all the old habitual thought patterns (that had been temporarily displaced) return to their position and life continues as before. That happens all too often. The mind needs to be stretched a few times in the same way before it loses its elasticity and maintains the new insight in awareness. The motto: write down a new idea, and APPLY it in as many ways as possible in your life. Use it creatively, then you’ll never be the same again.
Not being too concerned with what others think of you is good advice. It is more important to be true to your own values and your own heart, whether others agree or not. If you get into people-pleasing you’re a sitting duck for having your life taken away from you, and being influenced away from being your true self. And as the quote says, others don’t really care anyway, they are much more concerned about themselves.
The heart chakra is the meeting point between energies from the earth and energies from the Higher Self exterior to this dimension. Between the body-mind and the soul. Between the human animal and the spiritual being. Between physicality and the ethereal. Therefore being centered in the heart, being open to love flowing in and out, being Love itself (as that is one’s essential nature) - this is the ideal position to be in, following the Middle Path. One is open to both the wisdom of the body and of the Higher Self.
Fortunately books are on the rise again, with the advent of Kindle and iPad. Though I still prefer to read in bed at the end of the day or on the sofa in the afternoon. Visual media are no substitute for the depth of understanding that text provides, particularly the insight into a character’s inner thoughts and feelings. Young people, particularly, need to read novels to develop empathy and acceptance of how people differ, and how valuable that is in the tapestry of life.
Spend a day relating to each person you meet as if they were your own mother, or your child, or your dearest relative. Do this at work, when you’re shopping, participating in a group, doing an errand. Make people feel important, loved, valued, respected and appreciated, and do it as an active choice, with intention to put something wonderful into the world. Realize how you benefit too.
Love is the healing factor for all of the challenges we face in life from painful feelings, experiences and circumstances. The opposite of love is fear, and fear results in suppression and eventually depression: hiding things away, pretending they don’t exist or never happened, not facing up to one’s responsibilities, and not simply being one’s true self.
By refusing to let go of the painful past, and clinging to the known, even though it’s uncomfortable, it’ll serve as a roadblock to love. By leaving behind your old self and taking a leap of faith into the unknown, it might just reveal what you are truly capable of becoming.
Whatever you resist, persists. The healing route is the opposite of resistance, it is acceptance. The way out is the way through: to open up, release our feelings, accept and let them go. To face reality as it is, which is much easier with love in our hearts rather than negative interpretations and self-defeating beliefs. As Buddha stated, “Our sorrows and wounds are healed only when we touch them with compassion.” Fortunately love is our true nature and is unlimited in supply.
Not necessarily, you may say, but group influence is powerful, even from those we don’t like. We need to spend most of our time with people who support our happiness and little with those who erode it.
Yesterday we looked at definitions of happiness including: expressing your true self creatively; loving life; the enjoyment of oneself; fulfillment, being content, liking what you do; good health; living true to your values; sharing life’s beauty with others; ease in experiencing change; living with kindness, love, peace and gratitude. What better way to incorporate all these factors than loving service being the backbone of your work!
Mr. Hitchcock was asked his definition of happiness... “A clear horizon, nothing to worry about on your plate, only things that are creative and not destructive,” and then he concluded with the above quote. Other definitions of happiness include: loving life; the enjoyment of oneself; fulfillment, being content, liking what you do; good health; living true to your values; sharing life’s beauty with others; ease in experiencing change; living with kindness, love, peace and gratitude. Perhaps Hitchcock sums it up best though.
Without receiving love we feel uncared for; without giving love we feel disconnected; without recognizing the source of love within us, an unlimited resource, we feel lacking.
Making contact with inner guidance is a big step forward in our consciousness. We then have access to universal knowledge through our higher self, our spiritual essence that remains in the next world, not incarnated in our body. The key is to quieten the verbal mind and to be open to receive... images, feelings and knowings. Our spirit communicates through the right-brain intuitive faculty, if we will just listen.
The problems and challenges of life are opportunities for personal growth and each of our experiences are best seen in that light: with gratitude.
We need to remain actively mindful, and reflect our inner loving soul with our behavior, otherwise the genetic programming of our human body and the mental conditioning of our many years of upbringing and social accommodation can take over our consciousness and undo the growth we have achieved from insights and understanding.
Looked at through the eyes of unconditional love - which includes understanding, empathy and compassion - everything is fine just as it is, everyone are perfect just as they are.
If what we accomplish is easy, there’s little sense of fulfillment in that. Our potential has not been realized. We didn’t even try. If we fall short of a great goal, so what... we may still have achieved remarkable things and in the wider view, succeeded.
Forget about when, that will be sorted - just trust in the universe, and play your part in the manifestation (because you are a crucial aspect of the universe too!)
Doesn’t mean you don’t learn from the past, or plan for the future, but there’s no need to fret yourself that things weren’t as they were, aren’t as they are, or might be worse. Simply to LIVE without giving yourself those headaches, and therefore to have the free consciousness to be able to perceive what is, to be grateful and be happy.
Of course, life would be dull without problems to solve, it’s just that the word has a stigma. Think of problems as challenges instead of as worries, a way to flex your creative muscles and to enjoy yourself.
I found the above quote in the wonderful book by Marci Shimoff:
Love for No Reason. Marci offers a breakthrough approach to experiencing a lasting state of unconditional love - the kind of love that doesn’t depend on another person, situation, or romantic partner, and that you can access at any time and in any circumstance because it is is part of you: it is who you are. This is the deepest and truest form of love - the timeless truth that Jack Kornfield refers to - and is the key to lasting joy and fulfillment in life.
These insights can inspire us to awaken and see the world differently,
with new motivation and possibilities for success...
“Be grateful for whoever comes, because each
guest has been sent as a guide from beyond” –Rumi
