Seeing God Everywhere

Teilhard de Chardin was a visionary French Jesuit priest, a paleontologist, a biologist, and philosopher. He spent the bulk of his life trying to integrate religious experience with natural science, most specifically Christian theology with theories of evolution. His writings were suppressed by the Catholic Church, and none of them were published until after his death.

Chardin was a prophet of love who took on the lifelong task of integrating science and faith. His aim as to teach how to see God everywhere, to see him in all that is most hidden, most solid, and most ultimate in the world. He was a prophet of immanence, which we can see in what he said at the end of his life:

If, as a result of some interior revolution, I were to lose in succession my faith in Christ, my faith in a personal God, and my faith in spirit, I feel that I should continue to believe invincibly in the world. The world (its value, its infallibility and its goodness)—that, when all is said and done, is the first, the last, and the only thing in which I believe. It is by this faith that I live. And it is to this faith, I feel, that at the moment of death, rising above all doubts, I shall surrender myself.

Can you imagine a more deeply mystical priest saying in essence that he is casting his lot with the immanence of God? With the Incarnation archetype? I have no doubt that he met God in his scientific pursuits as well as in his mystical meditations. Both Chardin and Berdyaev had the sense of the growth of the mind of the Cosmic Christ, through human participation in it.

Chardin, a Western Catholic, and Nicolas Berdyaev, a Russian Orthodox Christian philosopher and prophet , have paved the way for our spiritual growth and creativity. Other than Chardin and Berdyaev, it is hard to find other Christian transpersonalists outside of a few significant drop-outs, such as Matthew Fox, Alan Watts, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Carl Jung, James Hillman, Paul Solomon, Edgar Cayce and a Methodist Missionary to India (E. Stanley Jones).

The task before us, said Chardin, is to build the earth. Chardin died a full ten years before Javes Lovelock ever proposed the “Gaia Hypothesis” which suggests that the Earth is actually a living being, a collossal biological super-system. Yet Chardin’s writing clearly reflect the sense of the Earth as having its own autonomous personality and being the prime center and director of our future-— strange attractor, if you will—that will be the guiding force for the synthesis of humankind.

The phrase “Sense of the Earth” should be understood to mean the passionate concern for our common destiny which draws the thinking part of life ever further onward. The only truly natural and real human unity is the spirit of the earth. The sense of earth is the irresistable pressure which will come at the right moment to unite them (humankind) in a common passion.

We have reached a crossroads in human evolution where the only road which leads forward is towards a common passion. To continue to place our hopes in a social order achieved by external violence would simply amount to our giving up all hope of carrying the Sprit of the Earth to its limits.

To this end, Chardin suggested that the Earth in its evolutionary unfolding, was growing a new organ of consciousness, called the noosphere. The noosphere is analogous on a planetary level to the evolution of the cerebral cortex in humans. The noosphere is a planetary thinking network, an interlinked system of consciousness and information, a global net of self-awareness, instantaneous feedback, and planetary communication. At the time of his writing, computers of any merit were the size of a city block, and the internet was, if anything, an element of speculative science fiction. Yet this evolution is indeed coming to pass, and with a rapidity, that in Gaia time, is but a mere passage of seconds. In these precious moments, the planet is developing her cerebral cortex, and emerging into self-conscious awakening. We are indeed approaching the Omega point that Chardin was so excited about.

The convergence however, though it was predicted to occur through a global information network, was not a convergence merely of minds or bodies, but of heart, a point that he made most fervently. The noosphere of which Chardin prophesied is a kind of global consciousness which is comparable to what I have called the Cosmic Christ Consciousness.

That flame, by which My universe should end up centralizing, being moved tenderly, in Jesus heart, was undoubtedly through my mother by means of the mystic Christian current, that she illumined and lit up my child soul

The Magic Formula

If you can honestly define something, you can conceptualize it
If you can conceptualize it, you can spiritually holographically envision it
If you can honestly spiritually holographically envision it, you can have it
If you cannot honestly define it or if you dishonestly define it, you cannot have it.

Alan Walter

Tis Good!

If You Are Anxious, Good!
You are anxious? Good.
You are aware of being anxious? Good.
You don’t know why you are anxious? Good
You don’t know how to get rid of your anxiety? Good
Pills didn’t work? Good.
Nothing else worked? Good.
Then you are ready to really ask some deeper questions? Good
You are considering that everything happens for a reason? Good
You can’t imagine what the reason for anxiety is? Good
You can’t see how anxiety could be a friend? Good
But you will consider that possibility? Good

Ignorance

"Both Christianity and Buddhism agree that the root of man's problems is that his consciousness is all fouled up and he does not apprehend reality as it fully and really is; that the moment he looks at something, he begins to interpret it in ways that are prejudiced and predetermined to fit a certain wrong picture of the world, in which he exists as an individual ego in the center of things. This is called by Buddhism avidya,or ignorance. From this basic ignorance, which is an experience of ourselves as absolutely autonomous individual egos--from this basic wrong experience of ourselves comes all the rest. This is the source of all our problems."

Thomas Merton (1968)

The Seven Word Formula for Enlightenment

Anxiety is Unawareness: X = U ÷ ∞

On this website I have one thing to say, and I intend to say it in 1000 different ways, so that we can get it.

To put it most simply, anxiety is unawareness. We are infinite beings, unaware of the unlimited power of imagination, because we do not see the Infinite Good.

Quite simply,the Seven Word Formula for Enlightenment is: Anxiety is Unawareness of the Infinite Good.

Anxiety arises because of the most profound ignorance in the universe, which is our ignorance of the Infinite Good. The Infinite Good is all that exists, but we can’t hear that. We are blind, dear and dumb to the meaning of that statement. The Infinite Good does not compute. If it did, it would shatter all other beliefs in the computerized human mind. Who is ready for such complete annihilation? Such total change? Such Good News?

If we were aware of the Infinite Good, we would be enlightened, and there would be no limits to the creative use of the imagination for the benefit of all humankind.

We sold out lock, stock and barrel to the belief in good versus evil and thus we betrayed the infinite power of imagination.

We betrayed our potentiality, we sold our ourselves short and we short-circuited the unlimited God energy/potential within us.

We sold out to the belief in limitations and that is why we cannot control, conquer, understand or medicate anxiety.

We will never be able to deal effectively with anxiety until we understand its cause and appreciate its message.

Anxiety is the direct result of our unconsciousness of the infinite power of imagination.

The imagination is infinitely good, no matter how we may have abused it in the service of ego.

We are scared to death of the unlimited power of imagination because we believe that we are guilty for victimizing and abusing creation and we are punishing ourselves for this crime. But no harm has been done.

How can harm exist if the Infinite Good exists? Remember our formula: only the Infinite Good exists.

The message hidden in anxiety is that no harm has been done, all is forgiven, guilt is an illusion, and no punishment is necessary.

Guilt, fear, condemnation and shame have no power. Love is the only power in the universe. Until we know and trust that single power, we will be anxious. Anxiety is unawareness of the unconditional power of love.

The riddle of the universe is why we are the only anxious species. The answer is that no other species has unlimited imagination coupled with the ignorant belief in good and evil.

Anxiety is the unawareness of the Infinite Good.

Anxiety is the unawareness of Unconditional Love.

Anxiety is the unawareness of Absolute Peace.

Anxiety about finances arises from the unawareness of Infinite Wealth
Anxiety about illness arises from the unawareness of Infinite Health
Anxiety about crime arises from the unawareness of Infinite Justice
Anxiety about conflict arises from the unawareness of Infinite Peace
Anxiety about loneliness arises from the unawareness of Infinite Oneness
Anxiety about failure arises from the unawareness of Infinite Perfection
Anxiety about supply arises from the unawareness of Infinite Provision
Anxiety about guilt arises from the unawareness of Infinite Mercy
Anxiety about weakness arises from the unawareness of Infinite Power
Anxiety about grief and death arises from the unawareness of Immortality
Anxiety about hell arises from the unawareness of Infinite Paradise
Anxiety about sexuality arises from the unawareness of Infinite Beauty
Anxiety about stupidity arises from the unawareness of Infinite Intelligence
Anxiety about boredom arises from the unawareness of Infinite Liveliness
Anxiety about forgiveness arises from the unawareness of Infinite Love

X = U ÷ ∞

Anxiety = Unawareness of the Infinite Good

A = T X 8

Awareness = Transcendence of the Story of Good Versus Evil

These two formulas spell out the metaphysical meaning of enlightenment.

I Am and You Are

I am the light of your world and you are the light of my world
I am the salt of your earth, you are the salt of my earth
I am healthy wealthy and wise in my relationship to you
The world and all that is in it is my oyster and yours
I observe only the Perfect in you
I see only the Infinite Good in us
I hear only the Infinite Good from you
I am the flow in you and in us
I give and receive only the Infinite Good by you
Only the Infinite Good exists for me through you
I am satisfied only with the Infinite Good in us
God works out all things in his time and that timing is perfect for us
Today I claim my Infinite Good for us
My consciousness includes only the reality of the Infinite Good in you
My only all-encompassing desire is for the Infinite Good, which you and I are
I am Peace for you
I am Truth with you
I am one with the Life in you
I am Eternity in your presence
I am one with your Immortality
I am the Treasure I seek in you
I am the Beauty I admire in you
I am the Paradise in which I live with you
I am Consciousness itself, ever unfolding, ever renewing, ever creative in our relationship
All that I touch is transformed into what it already is for us
I am that which knows you in God
I am awareness itself for you and for us
I love everything about you but I am attached to nothing about you
There is nothing to fear, nothing to resist, nothing to avoid, nothing to dread in our life
I accept the Infinite Blessings that are mine through you
God is always blessing me through you and you through me
I am a channel of Miracles in you and me
Reality is the miracle that we live in
Everything is being transformed, made new through our relationship
Everything that I behold with awareness is blessed and renewed for everyone we know
My eyes see only the Beautiful, my ears hear only the Good News for us
God is offering herself to me every moment in every form through you
Behold, all things are being made new through you
I am being transformed and made new by you, through you and for you
You are the light of the world for me

Assuming or Being Aware?

Awareness, in and of itself, is transformative
Ken Wilbur

Is that so? Is awareness transformative? Something that simple can change your whole life? Then what is awareness? If we are creatures of habit, we must not be aware? Duh. You got it. We are creatures of habit. Our life story is a story of our habits of thinking. The main habit we have is assuming. Assuming makes an ass of you and me, I was told by a patient in a mental hospital. And what is it that we assume?

Examine yourself. You can either assume or be aware, but not both. Assumption or awareness, that is the choice. Remain the same or change. Be conformed or transformed. This is our choice every moment.

Socrates questioned everything, every assumption. Jesus questioned everything, every assumption. So can you. Every thought, every feeling, every behavior, every habit. If you don’t question everything, you will remain stuck in your unconscious assumptions. It’s your choice. You can remain asleep or awaken. You can remain unconscious and anxious or become conscious and free. You can begin right now. You don’t have to wait for anyone’s permission or blessing. You don’t have to wait for graduation, for a promotion or for retirement. Today is the day of salvation.

But how? Maybe up until right now you never asked how. How? is a prayer. You just asked God a question. You will get an answer. But in order to get that answer, you will have to listen. You will have to be willing to change. You will no more be a creature of habit. Life is a crap shoot and everything is on the line. You are betting it all on the next roll of the dice.

If you are not a creature of habit, then who are you? Can you hold that question in mind for over 2 minutes? Try it. Secondly, you ask. What is reality? Uh oh! I didn’t expect that. Doesn’t everyone know what reality is? There you go again, assuming. Remember, we are going to question everything if we want to wake up. In this dream of life, in this rabbit hole, we have to ask questions. Assume nothing. Doubt everything. Be present or you will miss it. All you will see is yesterday’s old movies. And you will again be a bit player in the next TV drama.

Jesus asked 87 questions of those who wanted to wake up with him. “Couldn’t you stay awake with me even one hour?” he quipped to his sleepy students. Nope, we can’t, at least we haven’t so far. If we were awake, could we be involved in the insanity of war? In the insanity of gossip? In the insanity of mediocrity? In the insanity of blame?

Our assumptions are insane and we don’t even see it. We take anxiety pills by the truckload and never question that our anxiety is appropriate to our insanity, to our assumptions. Do you want to change or to be right? Do you want to be happy or to be right? Do you want to be transformed or to complain and criticize? Begin today. Question everything, every assumption.

How can you do that? I will give you a clue. Nothing exists except the Infinite Good. Try that one on for size. That one clue will shatter your view of your identity and your “reality.” What have you got to lose except your insanity, your assumptions, your desire to be right and mediocre? Join me today in the Wake-up Club. Renew your mind, and your world will change accordingly.

Let’s consider that God is speaking to us every moment, for example. Are we listening or are we just caught up in ego chatter. You could assume that God never speaks to you, or you could be aware that she always speaks to you. How is that for a wake-up call! Suppose everything that ever happened to you was a message from Eternity. Suppose you are deaf, dumb and blind to that possibility? Suppose that universal love, universal intelligence, universal power, and universal talent are yours! What habits of thought keep you from transformative awareness?

Suppose that you have never had a steady vision of reality? Suppose you are just seeing your own assumptions. No wonder life is boring, repetitive, mediocre, insecure and stressful. We are just listening to the old re-runs of our parents and our society and our educational system. Jesus said “The Kingdom of God is right here, right now, and you don’t even see it!” No wonder he was so turned on!

Assumptions or awareness, anyone?

If You Are Anxious, You Are Not Conscious

If you are anxious, you are not conscious.

Take that as your flashpoint of awakening. Take that as your challenge to become aware of your trance-state. Take that as your life study, your watchword. If this doesn’t get your attention, what will? At least you have heard the truth in a sea of confusion, illusions and lies.

If you think anything will medicate your stress except the awareness of unawareness, you are not conscious of the Truth that sets you free.

If you think your sense of stuckness is real, you are not conscious of your spiritual Freedom

If you think you are who you think you are, you are not conscious of your Real Self

If you think God is somewhere else, you are not conscious of Oneness

If you think good versus evil is real, you are not conscious of the Infinite Good

If you think you ever have, are or could be, a victim, of anyone or anything, you are not conscious of your Safety

If you think your experience of the Infinite Good is due to anything but your immediate choice, you are not conscious of the Power of Imagination

If you get upset for any reason, you are not conscious of Peace

If you hate or fear anyone or anything, you are not conscious of Unconditional Love

If you think that anything limits you except your own imagination, you are not conscious of your Limitlessness

If you become critical, if you complain, if you blame, if you threaten and punish anyone, you are not conscious of Spiritual Perfection

If you think force or manipulation solves anything, you are not conscious of your Real Power

If you are in pain or ill, you are not conscious of your spiritual Health

If you are defensive, you are not conscious of your Invulnerability

If you are worried, you are not conscious of your Security

If you are making excuses, you are not conscious of your Forgiveness

If you are fearful, you are not aware of your Immortality

You're Not Getting What you Want?

We attract into our experience what we focus on, and usually we focus of what we don’t want

You got what you didn’t want because you didn’t believe 100% in what you did want.

So what have you got? A lot of what you don’t want?

Perhaps when you got something you didn’t want, you went into resistance, and what you resist, persists.

Why are you getting what you don’t want? Because of the undisciplined use of your imagination.

If you are getting what you don’t want, whose responsibility is it?

If you are getting what you don’t want, you are not conscious

If you are getting what you don’t want, you’re attracting it

Let’s begin with the assumption that you are the sole cause of all of your experiences.

What you see is what you get.

Realize that your body listens to every word you say.

You’re complaining? Listen to your story. If your life is not what you want it to be, change it.

If you made it the way it is, you can change it. But only if you want this change 100%

You’re probably at 50/50 now. 590% for and 50% against. Either change your way of thinking or stop complaining.

You are in charge, aren’t you? If you aren’t, who is?

Either you are in charge or your ego is.

If its your ego, what can you expect? Ego is rarely more than 50/50.

You can’t expect ego to be happy. Ego is unconsciousness. If you were conscious, you wouldn’t be in ego. You would be in bliss.

If you are not happy, you are not conscious.

Yes, truth is radical, 100% radical. Did you think mediocre would do it?

Do You Really Want to Know the Truth?

Contemporary neuroscience identifies a particular part of the brain, sometimes called “the interpreter,” as the source of the familiar internal narrative that gives us our sense of self.

Two prominent neuroscientists have recently characterized the quirky, undependable quality of the tale told by the interpreter.

Antonio Damasio describes it this way: “Perhaps the most important revelation is precisely this: that the left cerebral hemisphere of humans is prone to fabricating verbal narratives that do not necessarily accord with the truth.”

And Michael Gazzaniga writes: “The left brain weaves its story in order to convince itself and you that it is in full control... What is so adaptive about having what amounts to a spin-doctor in the left brain? The interpreter is really trying to keep our personal story together. To do that, we have to learn to lie to ourselves.” These insights, based on solid experimental work, show that we tend to believe our own press releases. Often when we think we’re being rational, we’re being spun by our own thinking.

That trait explains how we get ourselves into the painful positions that we get ourselves into that we call suffering. Self-questioning enables us to find a way out of our self-made trap.

Self-questioning begins with "Is that true?" The next time you get upset, look at what you are telling yourself and ask that question.

Revised prayer of St Francis

Lord, I AM an instrument of thy peace.

Where there is Hatred, I AM Love.

Where there is injury, I AM Healing.

Where there is Doubt, I AM Faithful, and

Where there is Darkness, I AM Light.



Creator, through Unconditional Love,

I choose to be Compassionate,

I choose to be Understanding,

I choose Love,

I choose to See You in All Others and Myself,

I choose to Give, Trusting in my replenishment.

I choose to Allow, Knowing that all is in Divine Order, and

I choose to Surrender, Knowing that this truly is the path of freedom.



Daniel Whittles

JESUS: The Trance-Breaker

The media is absolutely preoccupied with Jesus. Everywhere you turn, there is another, often weird, story or comment about Jesus. Jesus is being quoted, idolized, put down, questioned, distorted, but not ignored. Is he a savior, a teacher, a prophet, or just a figment of imagination. Some go so far as to say he never existed as a historical figure, that he was a concoction of Jewish sages, invented to compete with other godmen of the time.

But whatever may be said about him, Jesus represents a human archetypal reality that we cannot afford to ignore except to our own loss. I think Emma Curtis Hopkins had it right when she said “Jesus is the only completely unhypnotized man in the history of the world.” The mission impossible of Jesus, then, was to break the human trance, to free us from the collective hypnosis of victimization. Because of our human dilemma, he will draw all men unto his truth discovery. He came to the truth in himself and nothing less will do for us as well. His clarity means that our clarity is also possible. You and I can speed up our liberation from unconsciousness if we understand the initiations he went through. Through intregrity in his own life rituals he demonstrated how we too can be winners over our own anxiety-ridden trance-stories.

The Good News that Jesus Christ brings to our attention is that we can be liberated from our blindness, our bondage, our suffering, our broken-heartedness, our poverty, our beliefs in evil, illness, old age and death. His discovery is the way, the truth and the life. His discovery was that only the Infinite Good exists. A few other wise men had discovered parts of this good news, but none of them realized it to the extent of resurrection. Jesus discovery, however, is not exclusive. Each of us can and must discover immortality within just as he did. This immortality is hidden by our trance state. Jesus is the trance-breaker. You can be and do the same. That is our major purpose here.

Awareness

Awakening is a shift in consciousness in which thinking and awareness separate. You are no longer lost in your thinking. Thinking no longer runs your life. Awareness takes over from thinking, and thinking becomes the servant of awareness.
Awareness is consciousness without thought. Awareness is conscious connection with universal intelligence, universal bliss, universal power, universal peace. Awareness is reality.

Awareness without thoughts, labels, words, imagery, concepts, judgments, limitations, and any other kind of perceptual filters is unlimited consciousness.
All thoughts are inherently limiting, restrictive, and misleading. Thinking manifests into finite form and we become attached to or resistant to such form. Ego is a narrative, a story, a fictional account of the finite forms we perceive. Ordinarily we do not see anything without attaching opinions and judgments to what we see.

“I think, therefore I am” was Descartes attempt to prove his existence. Thinking, however, does not prove anything more than the existence of ego. And to whom could our ego existence be proven? Ego is an opinionated story which registers itself in consciousness. Without consciousness, no thought could exist. So ego is a thought pattern in consciousness. Ego, therefore, is not final or absolute or independent.
Once consciousness is clear, there is no ego thought there, there is no limitation there.

All thoughts are limitations. Consciousness is not a thought. When thought disappears, so does ego and so does memory and pain. Awareness is painlessness. All pain resides in cellular memory and in the thoughts which produce cellular memory.
Step outside of thought and experience godliness. Outside of thought there is nothing but pure consciousness, unblemished godness, total potentiality, unlimited bliss, warless peace, and undivided oneness. Thoughts and the material forms they generate and our attachment to or resistance toward those forms, cause our symptoms and the pain from those symptoms.

You can step outside of your thinking and the world of form right now. Just take a few breaths and notice every thought as a thought. You either experience form from thought or from consciousness. If you experience form from thought, you will be anxious and feel limited. If you experience form from consciousness, you will not experience anxiety nor limitation. Thoughts and forms are things which are created by consciousness. You are consciousness; you are not a thought nor a thing. Thoughts and forms change; consciousness does not. Consciousness has no limitations and no form.

You can step out of your self-limiting memories, perceptions, thoughts and feelings. You can transcend and observe them. That observing process is consciousness. You can observe your ego way of thinking. You can let go of all thinking. All thinking in the final analysis is ego thinking. “I can observe my ego thoughts; therefore I am consciousness, not ego. ” Consciousness, not what I am conscious of, is who I am. Freedom is release from our identification with our thoughts. Become what you are, consciousness.

Ignorance is simply unawareness. Ignorance is the only death we shall ever know. Ignorance means ignoring consciousness.

I think we risk becoming the best informed society that has ever died of ignorance. --Reuben Blades

Read This Today and Every Day for 30 Days

My Declaration of Spiritual Interdependence

God is My Infinite Good
God is my provider, there is no lack
God is my companion; I am never alone
God is my power; weakness is imaginary
God is my health; no ill can befall me
God is my freedom, nothing can bind me
God is my peace; no anger can control me
God is my certainty; insecurity is only a belief
God is my success; I cannot fail
God is my truth; appearances do not deceive me
God is my ecstasy; pain and pleasure come and go
God is love; fear is not real
God is my infinite partner; I am not a victim
God is my intelligence; stupid mistakes are unnecessary
God is my contentment; complaining is gone
God is my vision; I have spiritual vision
God is my patience; everything is on time
God is my home; there is nowhere infinite good is not present
God is my forgiveness; blame and criticism are useless
God is my comfort; pain is dissolving
God is my great mystery; I don’t have to know it all
God is my awareness; my brainwashing is evaporating
God is my source; I am free from inferiority or superiority
God is my life; death is a fantasy
God is the object of my desire; I am not in want
God is my potentiality; nothing is impossible
God is my infinite good; all the rest is just a story of good and evil

Who are Your Mentors?

I found an interesting article about mentors by Chris and Janet Atwood:

A mentor is a shortcut to success in any area of life. So, don't use mentors unless you're in a hurry.

A mentor will:
• shorten the journey
• help you avoid the pitfalls
• teach you patience
• challenge you to be your best
• help you start where they left off

There is a secret to gaining maximum from any mentor contained in one of the most ancient texts in the world:

"Through devotion, repeated inquiry and service, the wise who have experienced reality will teach you knowledge."
- Bhagavad Gita

What does the verse mean?

Devotion - Have an open mind and heart, be devoted to knowledge, and devoted to the service of your mentor.

Repeated Inquiry - Ask questions for clarity, understanding and to bring out new knowledge.

Service - Discover your mentor's goals, find ways to help them achieve those goals, and you will have their wisdom, their knowledge and their support.

Here are a few of our mentors:

His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. In our opinion, Maharishi is the greatest scientist of consciousness ever to live. He has taught us the fundamental truths of life and his Transcendental Meditation program has been a continuing tool for radical personal transformation in our lives for over 30 years.

Byron Katie - Katie's simple process of self-inquiry is incredibly powerful and a straight path to embracing every experience in life.

Mark Victor Hansen - Mark is a great light in our life. He is a fountainhead of ideas, an emissary of good will, and a visionary extraordinaire.

Robert G. Allen - Bob is a master at simplifying the complex. He also understands the fundamental principles of why and how people make decisions. He is a master teacher and a great man.

T. Harv Eker - Harv is one of the most skiled designers of transformational learning we have ever seen. His courses consistently deliver valuable knowledge while allowing the participant to learn through direct experience.

To discover your ideal mentor, begin with who you are, where you going, and what you intend to achieve in your life (self-knowledge). Then identify a mentor who is at the top of the field in the area in which you wish to excel. Then make yourself indispensable to them.

"If you want to achieve greatness, renown, and superlative success, you must apprentice to a master."
- Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen

Again, do you have a mentor? Who has been a conscious influence on your life?
Do your mentors bring you closer to your spiritual potentiality?

And remember, no outer mentor can replace your Mentor Within!

What Did You Sell your Soul For?

You did it. You sold your soul for a mess of pottage. You sold your soul for security. You sold your soul for approval, appreciation and “love.” You sold your soul for the appearance of power called force. You sold your soul for some magical belief system. You sold your soul to be a winner and a success. You sold your soul for a story of conformity or rebellion.

You decided what to sell your soul for, but you didn’t know what it was for until later.

Can anyone get through life without selling their soul? No. Is there any comfort in numbers? The polls change daily, don’t they? And have you found that you can outmaneuver anxiety? Maybe you will be the first.

What have you sold your soul for in the past? What are you selling out now for? You get to pick what you will sell your soul for, but not whether.

Let’s begin with some operating assumptions and definitions.

Soul is who you are.

No one knows who they are.

Personna is who you pretend to be

Shadow is what you pretend not to be

You can’t stand Persona or Shadow

You are constantly trying to change your state of mind

Altered states of consciousness (ASC’s) are the ways people become addicted to temporary changes, such as working hard, being lazy, consuming drugs or alcohol or food, seeking sexual stimulation, getting ahead, controlling people, shopping, retiring, winning, seeking attention, etc.

Whatever seems to alter your Personna or Shadow is what you sell your soul for.

Anxiety is a reminder that you sold your soul.

Your Shadow is where your sold out soul resides.

Enlightenment is the process of investigating how anxiety hides your divinity.

How Easy Is It To be Brain-washed?

Answers to the Twenty Fun, Fast, Mind Power Questions

Here are the answers. Every question is copied so you don't have to look back and forth.

One. If there are three apples, and you take away two, how many do you have?
Answer - Two! If you you take two (let's say one in each hand), how many do you have? Two.

Common Wrong Answer - One. We are programmed since childhood to look at how many apples are left, but that's not what this question asks for.

Two. Can a man in Utah legally marry his widow's sister?
Answer - No. If she is a widow, then he is dead, and at least in Utah, you can't marry a dead body.

Three. You are all a bunch of great folk! Spell folk out loud three times. F-O-L-K, F-O-L-K, F-O-L-K. Super - now what do you call the white part of an egg? Write it down.
Answer - Egg White. The Yolk is the yellow part.
Common Wrong Answer - Yolk (programmed with Folk).

Four. In baseball, how many outs are there in an inning?
Answer - Six, three for each team.

Five. How much dirt is there in a hole two feet by two feet wide, and also two feet deep?
Answer - None. It's a hole, and there is no dirt in a hole.
Common Wrong Answer - Eight cubic feet.

Six. If a farmer has 15 white sheep standing in a field and all but five drop down and die, how many of the sheep are left standing?
Answer - Five. All but five drop down and die.
Common Wrong Answer - Ten. Many people use subtraction (15-5=10) although the question doesn't call for it.

Seven. Hurry now, you are being timed, remember? Quickly spell Ten out loud three times. T-E-N, T-E-N, T-E-N. Good, now what are aluminum cans made of?
Answer - Aluminum
Common Wrong Answer - Tin (programmed by Ten)

Eight. A clerk in the butcher shop is 5 feet, 11 inches tall. What does he weigh?
Answer - Meat. He works in a butcher shop. He weighs meat!
Common Wrong Answer - Uh....I can't know that.

Nine. How many birthdays does the average man have?
Answer - One. We just celebrate it year after year, but we only have one birthday.
Common Wrong Answer - About 76..

Ten. If a female doctor gives you three pills and tells you to take one every half hour, how many minutes will the pills last?
Answer - 60. Let's say you get the pills at 5:00, and take the first pill right then, at 5:00. Then you take the second at 5:30, and the last at 6:00. In sixty minutes, the pills are gone.
Common Wrong Answer - 90.

Eleven. Some months have 31 days. How many have 28?
Answer - 12, or all of them. They all have 28 (at least).
Common Wrong Answer - One, or just February

Twelve. If you set a round container in the sun containing ten cups of water, and 10 percent of the water evaporates each day, how many days will it be until the water is gone?
Answer - Never. Every day, 90 percent of the water is left. If that continues to happen, there will always be water left in the container.
Common Wrong Answer - Ten. If ten percent of the original amount evaporated each day, this would be true, but that's not what the question asks.

Thirteen. You are doing so good! I'm sure you have all correct so far. Remember to hurry. Do they have a fourth of July in England, Yes or No?
Answer - Yes, of course. They don't jump from the third of July to the fifth. That would be strange.
Common Wrong Answer - No, conditioned by thinking of the fourth of July as a holiday (Independence Day). The question doesn't say anything about holidays or celebrations.

Fourteen. How many four cent stamps are there in a dozen?
Answer - 12. There are 12 of anything in a dozen.
Common Wrong Answer - Three. Some people divide 12 by 4 to get 3, although the question doesn't call for division.

Fifteen. A snail named Ed lives at the bottom of a 30 foot well and decides to climb out. He can climb up three feet in one day, but every night he slides back down two feet. How many days will it be before Ed gets out of the well?
Answer - 28. On day 1 he reaches a high point of 3 feet, then slides back to 1 foot. On day 2 he reaches a high point of 4 feet and slides back to 2. On any day, the high point reached by Ed is two more than the number of the day. On day 28 he will reach 30 feet and climb out.
Common Wrong Answer - 30, based on averaging one foot per day for thirty days.

Sixteen. Some people have a lot of pots. Spell Pots out loud three times. P-O-T-S, P-O-T-S, P-O-T-S. Ok, what do you do when you come to a green light?
Answer - Go. It's a green light.
Common Wrong Answer - Stop, programmed by the letters in pots.

Seventeen. Divide eight by one half, and write your answer.
Answer - 16. Eight divided by two is four. Eight divided by one half is 16. (One half goes into eight sixteen times).
Common Wrong Answer - Four, programmed by thinking I asked you to divide eight "IN" half, which would be four. But that's not what the question was.

Eighteen. It's dark in your room and you need to grab some clothes. You know you have ten blue socks and ten black socks in your drawer. What is the fewest number of socks you need to take to make absolutely sure you have a matching pair?
Answer - Three. If you take two, you may have a matching pair, but you may have a blue and a black. The third sock has to be either blue or black, so with three socks you are sure of a pair.
Common Wrong Answer - 11. Some people think they have to make sure and get one sock of each color, but a pair is two of the same color.

Nineteen. How many members of each animal did Moses take on the ark?
Answer - None. It was Noah who took the animals on the ark. Moses was the one who led the children of Israel out of Egypt.
Common Wrong Answer - Two, not listening to the question because of programming and conditioning.

Twenty. If a chicken and a half can lay an egg and a half in a day and a half, then how many eggs can nine chickens lay in nine days?
Answer - 54. Ok, here's the math. If 1 1/2 chickens can lay 1 1/2 eggs in 1 1/2 days, then 3 chickens can lay 3 eggs in 1 1/2 days, and 9 chickens would lay 9 eggs in 1 1/2 days.
If you double or triple the number of chickens, you also double or triple the number of eggs in the same time period. So 9 chickens would lay 9 eggs every day and a half (or six eggs every day). There are six "day and a half" periods in nine days, and six times nine is 54 eggs.
Common Wrong Answer - 9, thinking the ratio would hold even.

There you have it. Twenty questions for you, showing you how easy it is to be programmed and brainwashed.
____________________
Christopher Westra

Twenty Fun, Fast, Mind Power Questions to Show How Brainwashed and Programmed You Really Are!

Here are the twenty questions. Grab a piece of paper and jot down your answers. Time yourself - You must go through the questions as fast as you can. Start Time __________ Finish Time _______

One. If there are three apples, and you take away two, how many do you have?

Two. Can a man in Utah legally marry his widow's sister?

Three. You are all a bunch of great folk! Spell folk out loud three times. F-O-L-K, F-O-L-K, F-O-L-K. Super - now what do you call the white part of an egg? Write it down.

Four. In baseball, how many outs are there in an inning?

Five. How much dirt is there in a hole two feet by two feet wide, and also two feet deep?

Six. If a farmer has 15 white sheep standing in a field and all but five drop down and die, how many of the sheep are left standing?

Seven. Hurry now, you are being timed, remember? Quickly spell Ten out loud three times. T-E-N, T-E-N, T-E-N. Good, now what are aluminum cans made of?

Eight. A clerk in the butcher shop is 5 feet, 11 inches tall. What does he weigh?

Nine. How many birthdays does the average man have?

Ten. If a female doctor gives you three pills and tells you to take one every half hour, how many minutes will the pills last?

Eleven. Some months have 31 days. How many have 28?

Twelve. If you set a round container in the sun containing ten cups of water, and 10 percent of the water evaporates each day, how many days will it be until the water is gone?

Thirteen. You are doing so good! I'm sure you have all correct so far. Remember to hurry. Do they have a fourth of July in England, Yes or No?

Fourteen. How many four cent stamps are there in a dozen?

Fifteen. A snail named Ed lives at the bottom of a 30 foot well and decides to climb out. He can climb up three feet in one day, but every night he slides back down two feet. How many days will it be before Ed gets out of the well?

Sixteen. Some people have a lot of pots. Spell Pots out loud three times. P-O-T-S, P-O-T-S, P-O-T-S. Ok, what do you do when you come to a green light?

Seventeen. Divide eight by one half, and write your answer.

Eighteen. It's dark in your room and you need to grab some clothes. You know you have ten blue socks and ten black socks in your drawer. What is the fewest number of socks you need to take to make absolutely sure you have a matching pair?

Nineteen. How many members of each animal did Moses take on the ark?

Twenty. If a chicken and a half can lay an egg and a half in a day and a half, then how many eggs can nine chickens lay in nine days?

There you have it.Tune back in tomorrow for the answers!

Christopher Westra

What is All of this Jesus’ Stuff About?

All of the furor and excitement about the Da Vinci Code must raise questions about what this novel/movie means to our society in general and to the spiritually-minded in particular.

The Da Vinci Code is a symbolic story about the mystery of the meaning of Jesus for our time. More books have been written in the last 100 years about Jesus than in all of history combined. Some of these accounts are re-interpretations of the life and teachings of Jesus for the 21st century. Some are said to be channeled messages from Jesus. Some say Jesus was a real historical figure and others say he never existed. Some say he was an incarnation of the Christ consciousness. Some say the gospels were literally true, some say they are fabrications, and some say they are symbolic. Even other religions are writing about the significance of Jesus for our time.

So it shouldn’t seem so strange that novels, debates and movies about Jesus should be in the public eye again. Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ and now the Davinci Code, not to mention the hot debates about the ten commandments, prayer in schools, church and state debates, and the born-again Christian president and political agenda controversies are constantly on the ndews.

There are reports popping up everywhere reporting that Jesus is making appearances, writing books and channeling information to all sorts of people, including skeptics, Buddhists and mavericks of all types. Universities are studying the Bible and critically examining the life and teachings of Jesus. Artists are painting new types of pictures of what Jesus may have looked like. Life and Time magazines have had feature articles and front page “pictures” of Jesus in recent years. Countless biographies and life histories about Jesus have sprung up everywhere. Matthew Fox has written a lot about the Cosmic Christ, toward which, Fox says, Jesus was pointing and which he embodied.

People are asking, how could Jesus possibly have said:
“I will draw all men unto me”
“I am the resurrection and the life”
“No man can come unto the father except by me”
“I and the Father are one”
“I am the way, the truth and the life”
“The kingdom of heaven is within you”

How could Jesus have said such absurd things? Was he the world’s most radical narcicist? Egomanianc? Fame-seeker? Liar?

The Davinci Code has come up with the story that Jesus survived the crucifixion, married Mary Magdalene, and moved to Europe. His blood line was perpetuated down through the centuries by a secret society, along with the secret that we still have a direct lineage connection with Jesus, Mary Magdalene and his daughter. This lineage secret was protected by a code used by Leonardo De Vinci and other scientists and mystical underground societies. The meaning of this story is being debated and questioned by many investigators, both within and outside of religion.

When are we going to get it? When are we going to understand that the Christ is symbolic of our very own true self? When are we going to intuit that this realization was Jesus’ true message and intent? Do we have a Buddha nature or a Christ nature or not? That is an awareness choice for each individual.
All of this Jesus’ focus by the media is a wake-up call and is the essential meaning of the Second Coming of the Christ. The code is symbolic of the understanding of what Jesus was about. We are all in the direct symbolic lineage of Jesus. Only you can decide how that is true for you! That awareness will be the most important decision you make each day! Until and unless we awaken that spiritual awareness, we will continue to stumble anxiously along in our chaotic ignorance and daily conflicts.

How long does it take to wake up? A nano-second? A lifetime? And what are we awakening from? Our long sleep in the story of victimization. And what are we awakening to? Unconditional freedom, peace and love. When? Now is the time.
There is nowhere to go, nothing to buy, no one to manipulate, no one to please or avoid, no waiting time, no achievements are necessary--just awakening, just awareness, just trust. Everything has already been given, we just haven’t taken it. Is that Good News or what? Without this inner awareness, nothing external is worthwhile, satisfying or lasting. Remember—there are no victims in true awareness, there is no one to abuse and no one to be abused, we are all one. If this is Christ awareness, we can see what all of the furor is about.

Contentment is a Choice

As long as you are in ego, you resist or attach to circumstances, feelings, objects, thoughts, activities, events or relationships. Such resistances and attachments are unconscious and reactive. The first way out of this trap is acceptance. You accept what is. If you cannot accept it, you can stop the activity. You do not need to slide into resistance or attachment. Acceptance is tolerance.

The next step up in consciousness is enjoyment. You can move from acceptance into enjoyment. You can eventually come to enjoy at all times. Enjoyment does not really come from without, but from within. In ordinary thinking, we assume that we enjoy this activity or that object or the other event, but it is not so. Nothing can give you enjoyment or cause enjoyment in you. You either bring enjoyment to the event or not.

Enjoyment is a spiritual state. Enjoyment is consciousness; enjoyment is awareness. “It is not what goes into your mouth but what comes out that counts,” Jesus said. Enjoyment is a choice, not a reaction, not a codependency. St Paul said that he had “learned to be content” anywhere anytime. Unconditional Contentment means that you are aware of oneness, aware of your spiritual nature.

The step from wanting to enjoying is a matter of awareness. In unawareness, we imagine separation and lack, and we are constantly wanting. In awareness, we realize oneness and abundance, and are constantly enjoying. Our absolute priority in life is awareness. Try an experiment today: make awareness of your unconditional spiritual nature your first priority.

Manage Pain or Grow Violets?

A counselor was having no success with a particular patient. In desperation, he placed a request to Milton Erickson, a very famous and successful psychiatrist to give him help. To his surprise, Milton agreed, but only on two conditions – that before they started therapy, they both would visit her in the house that the client lived in, and then that he meet alone with her once the house tour is done. He agreed. They both go in. She gives a tour – pretty typical of a house of a woman who is depressed – dark, dingy, low light; greasy smudged windows. The rooms are cluttered with piles and papers and disorder. That is, until they get to the back of the house – and the add-on porch room. Here bright sunlight streamed through clean, open windows. And here inside were hundreds of African Violets, growing beautifully all around. “I guess your friends must really enjoy all the gifts of these African violets that you give them,” said Dr. Erickson. “Oh no”, said the woman. “I don’t give them to anyone.” And her voice trailed off defensively. “Oh, I thought you called yourself a Christian.” Silence met his comment. Dr. Erickson dismissed the counselor and spent about three minutes in the room with the woman and then left. When the counselor asked Dr. Erickson if he should be worried – Milton said no, she will be fine. And that was the end of the case. Until 10 years later.

The counselor received an envelope from the Dr. Erickson containing an obituary notice. It read “African Violet Queen dies.” It went on to describe this woman who was famous for giving away all these African violets to all her friends, people in the neighborhood, and just about anyone she came in contact with. It described the full, rich life she had. “How did you do it?” he asked Dr. Erickson. “When I walked through her house, it became obvious to me how depressed the woman was and the amount of pain she was in. And when I got to the back room, I realized I had a choice. Do I help her manage her pain and work to shrink the depression, or do I help her grow violets. I chose to help her grow violets.”

Being Present

Anything that has happened before this moment is past history, no longer alive, no longer relevant. Anything that happened yesterday is now old, limiting, and restrictive. In Revelation 21: 5 it says "Behold, I am making all things new." When you come into the present moment, into the Now, you come into the realm of infinite possibilities. Your old thinking passes away. You die to the good and the bad of the past. Just take two or three deep conscious breaths and be present. Be still. Be aware. Options that you had never seen before will open up. All things are being made new. You have now come into God's presence. God is not in the past or future, only in the Now. The past and the present do not actually exist, they are just thoughts, impressions, memories, anticipations. You do not have to be a slave of time. If you can be present and alert, the world becomes your oyster.

You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen.
Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait, be quite still and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice,
it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.
- Franz Kafka

All things are being made new! Can you believe it? Can you allow it? This is a new day, rejoice and be glad in it.

What is Your Chief Hidden Talent?

I have discovered a therapeutic tool which is guaranteed to shorten your therapeutic/awakening process from 20 or 30 years to 1 year. In just one year of study and practice, you could acquire the chief Transformation Tool with which you can realize your potential very speedily. Stress and suffering can be reduced by increased awareness instead of being sugar-coated, denied, rationalized, self-medicated or symptomatized.

What is this Transformation Tool? It is your greatest, hidden and undeveloped talent. Do you know what your greatest talent is? I don’t mean gardening, painting, auto repair, or playing music. Those are expressions of your most fundamental talent. I dare you to make “What is my greatest talent?” into a koan, a puzzle, an inquiry, for the coming year.

You can begin this inquiry by asking yourself: “What is my greatest shame and my greatest pride and what do they have in common?”

“What is my greatest fault and my greatest virtue, and what do they have in common?”

“What is it that creates my nightmares and my daydreams?”

“What is it that creates my pleasures and my pains?”

“What talent of mine have I most ignored, denied, slighted and degraded?”

One clue about this talent is that I already use it 24/7.

The second clue about this ability is that it controls everything I think, feel, say and do. What is it?

Third clue: Your chief hidden talent is the same chief talent that everyone has.

Fourth clue: without this hidden talent you would not be human.

Fifth clue: this ability is the essence of your spirituality.

Some people consciously know more about this faculty than others, but none of us realizes its full significance and power.

If we did know, our suffering would be over.

This talent is the power behind transformation.

This gift is the secret of the ages.

This ability is played down and distorted in education, politics, science, psychology, theology and psychotherapy, as well as society in general.

This capability is the secret of the gods.

What is it, which when misused, brings hell and understood brings heaven?

This power has many different names, but let’s be sure we have gotten to the deepest level of our inquiry, guessing and naming.

I am open to your feedback, comments, questions. I will listen to what you say, walk around it a dozen times and see if I can poke holes in it. I will create scenarios to test our answers. I will play the devil’s advocate.

After all, the answer to this question is critical for your future and mine, as well as for the future of this planet. The answer to this question is the clue to our anxiety and to our personal evolution. Is it worth our concern and investigation? The answer to this question determines how much power you have and the limits on your power.

The koan I am offering you is:

“What is the source of your power and weakness?

“What is your primary unrecognized talent?”

“What is the cause of your successes and failures?

“What is the cause of your happiness and unhappiness?”

“Your health and your illness?”

All of these questions can be answered with one word. Come on, play with me.

The Only Unhypnotized Man

"Jesus was the only unhypnotized man in the history of the world." Emma Curtis Hopkins

Forty days alone in the desert without food enabled Jesus to travel to the core of existence itself. Layer upon layer of the collective unconscious mind had to be traversed and cut through. Thousands of stories and images of good news/bad news scenarios didn’t cut it. Finally he reached the Very Good that had been lost since Genesis 1:31, the bedrock of reality. Once he reached that level of consciousness, he could not be tempted by anything the world had to offer. He knew that mankind was enslaved by the external symbols of pleasure, fame and power, which shortly fail to satisfy.

He emerged from the desert full of light. He went to the temple in his home town and announced his mission to bring the good news he had found to the world (Luke 4). They handed him the scrolls of scripture and he read from Isaiah 62: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to see free those who are downtrodden, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” He was electrifying! He announced what he had found at the very center of existence: the infinite and unequivocal good news. He didn’t get that from society, from the learned, from the libraries, from the politicians and priests, because they didn’t know it.

This announcement angered his listeners when he told them that to qualify for the good news you have to be aware that you are poor, imprisoned, broken-hearted, downtrodden, blind, or grief-stricken. Our whole ego belief system in the story of good and evil has to be falling apart before we are open to the infinite good news. He had come to the chief problem of man: that we have been deceived, mis-educated, brain-washed, misled, falsely indoctrinated, conditioned, and hypnotized. We are ignorant of the truth. We look but we don’t see. We are in a state of amnesia. A complete turn-about is required. Outward behavior won’t cut it. We have to become like a little child, innocent open and without knowledge or we cannot find the Kingdom of Heaven. Is that good news? Not to the ego. Everyone wants to think he or she is right, that we know the score, that we are educated, modern, up-to-date, well-read, computer-literate, good people. The problem is god and other people. The good news is that we are mistaken, asleep in our common sense view of reality, and for the most part we don’t want to be disturbed. Jesus was the Great Disturber. The Grand Inquisitor asked “Jesus, why do you disturb us!” The very crises that come in our lives make us open to the possibility of seeing the false story of good versus evil that makes us poor, imprisoned, blind, starving, broken-hearted and asleep. Infinite Good News now becomes possible.

Synchronicity, Anyone?

My daughter told me an interesting experience she had recently. She applied for a new job through a friend, with a start-up medical research company. Eventually she would be salaried and own one-fourth of the stock of the company if it proves to have a viable product. In the meantime, she would be employed but unsalaried, doing medical research that she would really enjoy. She was excited about the long-term prospects, but anxious about how long it would take for her salary to begin, and whether the family could weather the period of waiting. She asked me what she should do. I asked her whether she had had any guidance. She said “You won’t believe this, but as I walked out of the interview I was feeling confused and muddle-headed. Heading for my car I passed a store window and only one thing caught my eye. There was a strange Christmas tree in the window, strange because it was in May, and on the top of that tree was an ornament which simply said ‘BELIEVE.’”

My only comment to my daughter was “Can you imagine how much trouble the Universe had to go to in order to get that store to display a Christmas tree in May, with an ornament that said “BELIEVE” on it, just for you!” We both laughed and laughed.

Resist Not Evil

Jesus said “Resist not evil.” Why do you suppose we are not to resist evil? Because resisting evil assumes that evil is a formidable foe, that evil exists in reality. If you resist evil, you would be resisting non-reality, and what a waste of time and energy that would be, thus making evil appear to be even stronger!

I love waiting on things to happen, because it helps me to get my priorities straight. Nothing in the world of form is that important, nothing is worth discounting my formlessness, my beingness. Having and doing are always actually secondary to being. Having and being are content in this drama, and they require time for fulfillment, and being is timeless. Being who I am requires no time, no doing, no having, only awareness. Anything that has to do with the past or present is less valuable than being present. Anything having to do with the past or present is time-bound, bringing up stress and irritation because we cannot control time or anything occurring in time, making it seem like our beingness and happiness is dependent on some external event.

Generally speaking we define ourselves by what happens or by what doesn’t happen, by activity, by ownership, by gaining and losing. We can now choose to welcome all so-called "problems" lest we define ourselves as "problem-solvers." We can choose to be free from any ultimacy which we attribute to problems and to problem-solving. A “problem” is when we give absoluteness to something relative.

There are only two categories: the limited and the unlimited, the form and the formless. The confusion of these two is the cause of unhappiness. Happiness is playing with and enjoying form, but not identifying with it. I am an unlimited being who has created the story that I am limited by time, space and matter. In each moment, I create time, space and matter and give it its finite or infinite meaning. I welcome not knowing about the future because it is merely content in the drama, and I am not in the drama except as a game to play. I am the dreamer of this dream.

I am not the little character on the stage rushing around trying to gain security and avoid insecurity. I am not the "small me" in my daily drama. I can be present now in full awareness, in full health, in full security, and in full happiness. Happiness depends on nothing and on no one. It is my natural God-given state, unless I make myself a victim of time. I am happiness. Worry about anything feeds the ego. Worry is futurizing. Worry about anything makes it appear that time has power over who I am. I choose not to resist the evil of time. time is just part of our ego drama when it becomes our master. I choose to be present, to be alert, to enjoy Eternity today.

Coincidence?

Artist Michael Daube was rummaging through a dumpster near his Jersey City loft, looking for sculpture materials, when he came across a David Hockney drawing worth $30,000! The son of a steel worker and a housewife, neither a high school graduate, Michael took off for India. While working at Mother Teresa's mission in Calcutta, he asked her how he might practice compassion. She suggested opening a school in the country's poorest, most heavily tribal state, rural Orissa. What started then is now Citta: a nonprofit serving marginalized communities with schools, hospitals, orphanages and centers in Mexico, Nepal, and India.

http://qad.charityfocus.org/more.php?n=2347

The Peace of God

This is a course in miracles. It is a required course. Only the time you take it is voluntary. Free will does not mean that you can establish its curriculum. It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a give time. The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance. The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite. This course can, therefore, be summed up very simply in this way: Nothing real can be threatened; Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.

From the Introduction to A Course in Miracles

Your Christ Consciousness

Within your soul is the open door which no human can shut. That door is your potential to manifest Christ consciousness. Embrace your Christ Self.
Jesus

Remember how Peter denied me three times? If you don't accept yourself as the Christ in embodiment, you are denying the Christ in you. Deny me not!
Jesus

Quotes from The Jesus Koans by Kim Michaels

Where Shall We Hide the Truth from Man?

Where Shall We Hide the Truth From Man?

"Where shall we hide the truth from man?"
The gods all cried when he was made.
"How can we guard our secret now?"
They asked each other most afraid.

"Hide it in the earth; he will mine it.
Hide it on a mountain; he will climb it.
Even in the sea he will find it.
Where shall we hide the truth from man?"

Quite beside themselves, they cried:
"This little guy will take our throne.
We have made him far too smart
Not to claim our heaven home

Hide it in matter, he'll analyze it.
Hide it in the water, he'll crystallize it.
Even in hell, he'll surmise it.
Where shall we hide the truth from man?"

They thought of stars in outer space
Or in the nature of a tree,
But they knew that man could solve
Each and every mystery.

"Hide it in the wind, he'll pursue it.
Hide it in an act, he will do it.
Even in an atom, he will view it.
Where shall we hide the truth from man?"

Then they solved the mystery
Of how the frightened gods should win.
The wisest said, "Let's take the truth
And hide it deep inside of him.

Hide it in his heart, he will doubt it
Hide it in his soul, he'll live without it
Even if we should reveal and shout it,
He won't believe the truth is within him."

Yogananda

The Proper Study of Mankind is Man

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; the proper study of mankind is man.
Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope was right when he says that the proper study of mankind is man, but he implied that when we study man we are not studying God. Rather than adding further to our dualistic dilemma, we shall study Human Divinity as the proper study of mankind.

We have pretty well finished the geographical exploration of the earth, we have pushed the scientific exploration of nature…but the exploration of human nature and its possibilities has scarcely begun. A vast New World of uncharted possibilities awaits its Columbus. Julian Huxley

The natural sciences study nature; the humanities study human nature; theologians study God’s nature; metaphysics studies the meaning of all three.

The science of human nature has never been attempted as the science of nature has. Neither physics nor metaphysics has touched it.
Henry David Thoreau

Throughout human history, we have discovered many things about nature and human nature, but we are still just in Phase One. The greatest discoveries and revelations are yet to come. I say revelations because we don’t discover everything. Most things are revealed. Most great breakthroughs were accidents or synchronicities, right? The aggressive masculine mode of research and investigation starts the ball rolling, but the feminine mode of receptivity or revelation is where the breakthroughs most often occur. The Sufis have a neat saying that you can’t find by seeking, but you don’t find without seeking.

I have an unshakable faith that mankind’s higher nature is on the whole still dormant. Helen Keller

The greatest discoveries and revelations are yet to come. Psychologists are researching human nature, as well as doctors, anthropologists, social workers, psychiatrists, sociologists, physicists, biologists, philosophers and theologians. People everywhere assume themselves to be experts in the knowledge of human nature. We all believe we know what makes people tick, and why people do what they do, don’t we? We are special experts on our spouses, parents and kids. We gossip about human nature all the time. Our movies, televisions shows, media, newspaper reporters, journalists, commentators, preachers, comedians and politicians all have notions about what human nature is.

And so I shall join the crowd and give my opinions. I believe that every thought, word and action reveals our view of human nature, and I believe that it is all projection. I believe that my world is made up of the kind of people that inhabit my brainscape.

The fascinating thing is that everyone has a small piece of this magnificent puzzle, this secret knowledge. Everyone knows something, no one knows it all. We all have access to discovery and revelation about the nature of things. Ask a child or ask the elderly what they know about human nature.

Let us explore the question: “What is human nature?” I don’t believe that we know what human nature is, or if we do know , we have forgotten the essence of it. That is why thy mystery remains, and that is why we are in such a symptomatic predicament.

All of the crud in our lives doesn’t seem to be a mystery, but it is. All of our dirty little secrets have not been explained. Everyone has a theory about why people are criminals, but do we know? Everyone has a theory about mental illness, but do we know? Everyone has a theory about teenage killers and child molesters, but do we know? If we know, why do such problems continue?

Our dirty little secrets, and even our hidden crimes, are mediocre. Only their motivation remains a mystery. We catalog many human behaviors but we cannot truly diagnose them yet The meaning of our human behavior and motivation remains enshrouded in mystery, even in this 21st century of information explosion.

People have always tried to analyze why people do stupid self-defeating things, but the Big Secret has not been revealed until this present time. We have excused or condemned every human depravity and fault, but we have not understood them beyond a very superficial level.

But now our survival depends upon the depth comprehension of the meaning of human behavior. Before now, if some kook shot somebody, it could be shrugged off. Now we have mass weapons of destruction and the means of lightning fast communication which demand that the mystery of life be discovered and revealed.

So in this study, we are seeking to find and we shall be willing to be shown the true meaning of human nature. My role here is to focus the flow of this dialogue according to what I have discovered and what has been revealed to me: that man is an infinite being with a finite belief system which perverts the whole picture.

We will look at two themes here: (1) the proposition that the world that you experience is a perfect mirror reflecting your consciousness; and (2) the proposition that there is evidence everywhere of your infinity, and of your resistance to your infinite nature

• A Hebrew king named David asked “What is man that thou art mindful of him?”
• A Greek philosopher named Diogenes spent his whole life searching for a true man but found none.
• They said of Jesus that he “knew what was in man.”
• Jesus asked his students “Who am I?”
• Neitzsche pronounced God dead and announced that man is Superman
• Freud said that man was driven by the Id and unconsciously programmed by trauma.
• Jung said that man is governed by the archetypes in his unconscious
• Psychiatrists have studied the insane man
• Doctors have studied the sickness of man
• Theologians have studied the sinfulness of mankind
• Maslow studied the healthiness and successfulness of humanity
• Transpersonalists study the contemplative man
• Kierkegaard found man to have a sickness unto death
• Criminologists study the psychopathic personality
• Sociologists study humanity as a community animal
• Skinner studied man as a stimulus-response mechanism
• New Agers study humankind as creators
• Marx studied man as a victim of economics
• Anthropologists study man as a product of culture
• The average person views humanity as a product of the environment
• Biologists study man as a genetic being
• Darwinians study mankind as a survival of the fittest
• Philosophers consider man as any and everything imaginable
• We are studying man as an amateur god

Although these statements are vast over-simplifications, they do indicate that man is a many sided, complex being. We have tried to simplify all of this and study man as a finite/infinite being because none of these disciplines seem to focus specifically on this kind of inquiry and research. Our intent here is to make this study relevant to living life now.