Daily Life As Spiritual Exercise

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The Ever Present Moment
2008-01-15 16:22:00
Man: "There is no "present moment" except in the illusion presented to us by the human mind."Me: Try sitting alone in a room quietly becoming aware of your body and your breathing. Become also aware of your mind and the thougths that are there. Become aware now of the room you are in, aware of whatever sounds are in the room; the refrigerator humming, the furnace running, the clock ticking, what ever sounds are in the room, become aware of them. While still being aware of your body, the noises within it, your breathing, your mind and the thoughts that are there, and being aware of the room you are in and the noises in it, become now aware also of the noises outside the room; cars driving by, playground noises, a fire engine in the distant, a plane flying overhead, whatever the noises are there, become aware of these as well.When you are aware of all these things; your body, your mind, the room you are in and the things outside the room, you are in the present moment. You are here an...
More About: Moment , Present

No Decision Necessary
2008-01-13 17:45:00
Here's a little example of how simply watching our thoughts objectively can guide us into right action without the intellect being involved.Earlier today I was out and about doing my day. At a certain point a thought came to mind that said "Hey, a toasted sesame bagel and smoked salmon cream cheese would be very tasty right now, eh?" and another said "Yeah, it would be, OK then, lets find a Dunkin Donuts and do it! And yet another came and said "But we are on a diet and getting fit, maybe we shouldn't" And another said" Yeah, but we are well under our daily calorie limit, so it will be OK"Now all the while this dialogue was happening I was standing back observing it play out in my mind and at the same time I brought my attention down to my stomach and "saw" that I wasn't even close to being hungry, that I didn't need any food and "knew" that the whole idea of a bagel right then wasn't right or for good reason. I didn't have to decide a thing, I could "see" that it was a wrong ...
More About: Decision

A Relationship with Reality
2008-01-07 17:04:00
A god is something that fulfils us. A god gives us a sense of identity and worth...of belonging. A god is something that fills a vacuum of emptiness we feel without it. A god can be anything we "worship" for it's blessings in return...another person, a drink or a joint can do it, and so can a myriad of other "relationships" we might engage in. Whatever the relationship we use to fill our void, to give us a sense of worth or belonging, we partake of it, and it gives to us those feelings in return.A god can give us pain, yes, like the pain of conscience we have when we know we did something we shouldn't have, like steal what does not belong to us or lose our patience with someone smaller or weaker than us. And a god can also cause us pain when we are separated from it. I always hated how I felt when I ran dry of pot or a relationship I was in ended. Those were painful things. But now I am in a growing relationship with something that I can not be separated from. I am growing in rela...
More About: Reality , Relationship

Dealing With A Jekyll & Hyde World
2008-01-07 15:16:00
Society is made up mainly of phony, plastic hypocrites. Underneath the polished veneer of respectability hide real ugliness....pettiness, cruelty, impatience, vengefulness, gluttony, selfishness and worse.The truly bright souls of the world can not bear to be like the phonies he sees around him. It seems more honest to be bad than to be rotten at the core and pretend not to be. Often the prison warden is secretly just as bad as or worst than his prisoners. The respectable psychiatrist is often crazier than his patient.Yes, often the outcasts from society are the truly bright ones but they have just one problem. They just do not know how to deal properly with what they rightly see. They do not know how to function in a world that rewards phoniness and hypocrisy. They can not conform for the approval of the world, it goes against everything they are, so they rebel, and end up in prison or a mental institution. But make no mistake about it. These ARE the brightest of the world, even as...
More About: World , Hyde , Jekyll

Love in Cyberspace...Is It Possible?
2008-01-04 15:57:00
Real love is mainly a matter of speaking truly and correcting the wrong in another and less about warm feelings and sex. Love stands up for what is right and does not enable error in another. Love patiently speaks up about the error, without anger or judgement, because it is not outcome based.The thing is, correcting the wrong in another can be messy, and the correction usually does not take right away. For example, you may speak up to someone addicted to something, but they may not quit right away, if they do quit An angry person may not see his anger right away...an impatient person may not see his impatience for weeks, months or years. But correction on the net, in a chat rrom, on discussion board or via email is like correction in real life. Although it can sometimes take immediately, it usually takes a lot of patience, a willingness to be thought wrong and mean for speaking your piece. and requires the ability to be longsuffering.I heard someone talking about love recently. Th...
More About: Cyberspace

Meditation and Rebirth
2007-12-31 16:34:00
We do not meditate for the goal of no thought.That only happens, I believe, after our mind is wiped clean of old conditioning after salvation is found. Infants and toddlers have minds free of word-thoughts because they do not know any words. Jesus said we can be restored to this state, but this state of mind is usually found only after long spiritual practice.In the meantime the goal is to become aware of each and every thought that goes on in the mind each and every moment. A lofty but very doable goal. A goal obtainable the minute we start to practice sitting still and watching our thoughts.Mastery over mental thinking, chatter and distraction that suck away awareness of the present moment takes daily practice. Daily practice then begins to extend our awareness of the moment beyond our formal meditation pratice onward into our whole day. Our awareness of the present moment thus increases and expands into every aspect of our lives.When we first meditate we find that the thought-str...
More About: Meditation , Rebirth

Marijuana and False Enlightenment
2007-12-28 15:25:00
I smoked pot for many years. I liked pot because it helped me forget what a mess my life was, but I also liked it because of the effect it had on me. Whereas most people would zone out, drift away into la la-land and forgetfulness when they smoked pot, people would say things to me like "you are the only person I know who gets sharper when you get high".Pot gave me the effect of enlightenment and realization. My thoughts would become crystal clear, extremely vivid and would reveal to me profoundly "spiritual" things. I could see into people with profound clarity and could psycho-analyze them with great precision. People found it mind boggling. A few liked it, but many found it cut to close to reality and stopped being with me when I was high.The high for me mimicked realization and insight so closely that it had me unable to see the evil spirit behind all this for a very long time.The spirit behind this drug knew that I was born with a proclivity toward truth, had strong perception ...
More About: Marijuana , Enlightenment

Taking A Stand Against Wrong People
2007-12-28 04:42:00
There are two ways of dealing with wrong people who come into our sphere of influence. Speak up, take a stand or pretend it doesn't really matter. One way supports what is right and the other way supports the wrong. Most are too cowardly to take a definitive stand anywhere because of the problems it brings...they love their peace and would rather just go along to get along a la Rodney King.At Christmas my sister in-law told me the story in front of all the relatives of how my three year old grandson had asked her for some candy one day. Everyone had their eyes on me waiting to see my reaction, they already heard the story and must have thought I would think it as funny as they did. But, as her story went, his father had earlier told her that the baby could not have any candy. But the baby insisted, so she said "OK, here, but eat it quickly and don't tell your Dad" She then proceeded to imitate how the baby followed her advice and rapidly chewed the candy and swallowed it. Everyone...
More About: People , Wrong , Stand , Taking

Begging For Approval
2007-12-21 03:17:00
I watched from the corner of my eye yesterday as a man returned some money he found to another. I was in a Senior Citizen Center reading over a newsletter while waiting for a meeting when the scene unfolded not far from me. Seems that one man found some money on the floor by the lobby entrance and put it in his pocket. Later, another man who realized he lost his money came frantically looking around the area for it. The first man observed the second man and deduced that it must have been his money. He asked the second man what he was looking for, to which the frantic one replied "my money, I lost it". The first man then asked how much money did he lose to which the second replied "thirty dollars". The first man puffed up his chest in anticipation of what he was about to do and pulled out thirty dollars from his pocket. He handed it over to the owner saying "Good thing it was me that found it, another might have kept it, huh?" as he glanced around the room looking for any sign of app...

The Right To Be Wrong
2007-12-18 04:26:00
People who are blind to, or otherwise unwilling to face up to, their problems should perhaps be pittied, but the most important thing to know is that everyone has the right to be wrong...and when that truth is fully understood it is most liberating. Liberating because it is never our responsibility to make another see their fault. Truth never imposes...therefore it is wise never to become emotionally invested in the waking up of another. That is best left between them and God. But this is not to say we can not or should not speak our truth to another...God forbid...it just means that it should not matter emotionally to us in any way whether they accept or reject the truth we just spoke.
More About: Wrong

Except a Man Becomes as a Little Child
2007-12-16 20:00:00
Man: "But how can you think without a voice in your head?Teacher: "There's either a voice in your head, talking to you in your mind or there is a pure knowing about things. A blind man needs a voice to guide him, but a seeing man simply sees. His seeing tells him where to go, what to do, without words"Here is a simple question for you. Can you look at a tree without saying to yourself ?tree??I was given to remember not long ago a time when I was very young. It is my earliest conscious memory. I remember standing inside my crib looking out into the room, into the world, aware of myself for the first time. I was aware of the furniture in the room, the linoleum on floor with a puzzling stain, the open windows with soft curtains flowing in a warm summer breeze and the birds singing outside somewhere. I remember wondering ?who am I?? ?where am I?? ?what is this place?? ?what is that stain on the floor?? ?why am I here??. Yet none of these ?questions? were with word-thoughts in my head. ...
More About: Child

Overcoming the Fear of Roller Coasters
2007-12-15 15:56:00
The things we unwitting do to each can be profound. I once made my 8 year old son come on a roller coaster ride when he did not want to. He was afraid, but I selfishly wanted to go on it and I made him come with me in spite of his protests. On the ride he sat in the seat with his arms folded tightly across his little chest, angrily and defiantly, but moments after the ride began we hit a bump, which abruptly raised him high off his seat and scared that pants off him because he wasn't ready for it. Of course he immediately grabbed the restraining bar for the rest of the ride but when the ride was over he was some mad. Fuming at me was more accurate, but it had to go somewhere ultimately, because a kid old can't stay mad at his Dad forever.What he did was to unconsciously sublimated his anger away from me and directed it toward the roller-coaster instead. For once unresolved anger gets inside us it has to show-up somewhere. In this case, I would later learn, it would manifest in the...
More About: Fear , Coasters , Roller

Spiritual Photosynthesis
2007-12-15 01:32:00
Photo-synthesis in nature is the process in which plants, trees and flowers absorb sunlight to convert it into sugar for energy to fuel self-growth and to feed other life forms that may eat of it. The word ?photo? means light and the word ?synthesis? means to combine two separate elements in order to produce a new one. Said another way, photo-synthesis is the process in which that of the earth mingles with that of the heavens to produce a sweet life-giving substance.The process of photo-synthesis, the mingling of heaven and earth, is similar to the process that occurs when through proper meditation a soul comes to the objective state. Like the slumbering little flower that awakens and lifts it?s head to face the morning sun and quietly bask in the growth inducing sun?meditation brings those with honest intent to the stillness above thought where it quietly basks in the transforming Light of the Son. Like photo-synthesis in nature, the photo-synthesis of the soul allows His Heavenly ...
More About: Spiritual

The Praying Mantis
2007-12-15 01:29:00
There was once an order of monks whose philosophy for obtaining enlightenment included a vow to never touch an unclean thing. Unclean things included all insects, and to deliberately touch one was a serious offense and could lead to expulsion from the order.One day two monks from the order were walking along a path in a rain soaked forest. Though the sun was out now, it had rained for many days causing overflowing brooks and rivers. Now it came to be that the two monks had to cross a small brook that was overflowing it?s little banks and was wider than a house, though not too deep.As they pulled up their robes they entered the shallow waters to wade to the other side. But when the first monk was half way across he noticed a Praying Mantis?or Walking Stick as the monks were fond of calling them. The Walking Stick was trapped on a rock in the middle of the running brook unable to get to the safety of either side. So the first monk took compassion on the little creature and allowed it ...

Ushering in a One World Government
2007-12-15 01:20:00
Imagine a world in which in one day civilization is totally devastated in a brief but deadly global exchange of nuclear weapons...everything not destroyed by blast and radiation with be destroyed by EMP...Electro Magnetic Pulse...which fries completely all things electrical and electro-magnetic.This is our current fear from Iran and why a missile defence shield is so imperative because if they can fire one single scud missile from an offshore freighter in order to explode a nuclear device high above the US our entire nation is cooked...pardon the pun. It would bring our entire way of life to a complete stand-still and destroy our entire economy.If our country's economy and way of life can be destroyed by the EMP of one single nuclear explosion imagine what a global exchange of nuclear weapons will do to the entire worlds economies and civilizations.From the electric grid, to refrigerators, to automobile, planes and trains, computers, cell phones and landlines...from water pumps, hy...
More About: Government , World , World Government

How a Witch Taught Me Love
2007-12-15 01:15:00
(Written early 2006) When I began meditating earnestly two and a half years ago, I did so because I was locked into living in my house with a witch of a woman, not my wife, who could control my emotions, and make me angry and upset with her oft times incessant nonsensical bitching and badgering. She could make me want to knock her out. Her regular "fits" of rage were so bad that I had to put a lock on the inside of my bedroom door to keep her out. At first I could not resist arguing angrily with her, even through a closed door. Later I resorted to wearing headphones while watching TV in my bedroom to tune out her haranguing until she wore herself out and went to sleep in her room. But it was the painful awareness of not being able to deal with this situation properly that eventually made me realize that until I got control of myself, and my angry thoughts and emotions, I could never hope to become a real man?nor find the solution to this miserable living situation I brought upon mys...
More About: Love , Me Love , Witch

Freedom From Sin?
2007-12-15 01:14:00
EternityGrace asked: "Who is to say that I, myself, am not lead by God? Who is to say that my heart, and my mind are not directly connected to God in the same way as these men. Wouldn't God tell me the same things that he told them?"Me: That's exactly correct, you could very well be all these things. But if you are, you will not be breaking the laws of right living. You will not be a living contradiction within yourself. You will no longer say, as Paul once said about His pre-saved life, "the good I want to do, I do not do". You will be whole, complete and empowered to do ALL the good things you know that you should do. You will love, not hate your enemies. You will give your cloak as well, to those who compel you to give your shirt. You will resent not evil, but overcome it with a good and proper attitude. You will be still within and know what is right to do each and every moment and do it.Not sinning does not mean you have suddenly become perfect...you may still spill milk and ...
More About: Freedom

Voice-Thoughts Anyone?
2007-12-15 01:10:00
When I awoke this morning the first thing I notice is that there is an immediate jumble of voice-thoughts in my head...voicing all manner of stuff in my mind. Song lyrics, lines from the movie I watched last night, thoughts trying to get me not to meditate, thoughts about what should I eat, what should I do, and many of them sound like me speaking to me.I have to meditate to "overlay" objectivity to set my mind right to do my day. The voice-thoughts subside in intensity as I watch and thereby distance myself from them, and my mind becomes quieter, not completely, but much quieter non-the-less. I am now separate from the voice-thoughts and I am now armed to do my day.As I watch myself through the day there are continuing attempts by "voice-thoughts" to attract my attention and draw me into a conversation. I see and dismiss most of them quickly. If some voice, like a self-righteous nag, wants to point out an error of mine and shame me into not looking at it, I quietly acknowledge what...
More About: Voice , Thoughts

The Far Shore...
2007-12-15 01:05:00
A little boy grabbed hold of his cat's tail while playing in the yard. The cat immediately began resisting, trying to pull away and making an awful noise. The boy?s mom looked to see what was happening and when she saw it said to her son, "Johnny, let go of the cat...you're hurting it." Johnny replied, " But Mom, I'm just holding the cat's tail. He?s the one pulling it."People and life often bring to us things and situations we'd rather not have to deal with, but if we struggle and resist against what is, we are like the cat in the story above. We bring unnecessary pain upon ourselves by the way we handle it. A slap on the face may hurt for a moment or two, but it will pass. A slap on the face compulsively "remembered" will continue to hurt us long after the physical sting has left.No matter what others may say, it IS possible to find and hold an imperturbable peace, no matter what others do to us. It is possible to endure a painful experience and be free of it?the moment it's...
More About: Shore