It's Only Words

Prior to the creation of words life must have just happened in a meaningless thought free NOW.
As we evolved a noise asigned to a particular picture was uttered creating a word.
As more and more words were created a new way to communicate had evolved.

Over time a language of separation using words to divide apsects of the one NOW into different parts was born. (good, bad, light, dark, love, hate, right , wrong).

Duality then became the language of mans reality.

The ego seems to have arisen in tandem with the evolution of language to give creedence to the meaning of words.

Yet whatever existed prior to language needed no words or ego or meaning just to be.
If there is no meaning in words other than what we have assigned them , can it be seen that there can be no meaning to ego either.

True egolessness is the natural condition of the unified field of existence and it includes all there is.
Egoity is an unnatural condition that appears to have arisen to give life to mans language of words, concepts and subsequent beliefs.
Consider the meaning man has given to the most meaningful word of all , the word 'ME' . Upon this foundational word all other language is constructed.

'Me' means 'I' as a separate idendity apart from all other life . An isolated thing-ego all alone forever struggling to live peacfully with it's false self and all other falsely labelled and therefore artificially separated life forms .
Only by seeing through our artificial language of words and their meaninglessness , can we drop our attachment to our artificial concept of 'ME' ,our illusory ego.

Without a 'ME' anymore, and all the accompanying language of 'ME', egolessness naturally arises in an unspoken language of love and ONENESS that requires no sound or meaning to convey.

Awakening to Who You Really Are!

Identifying who you really are, is awakening to great peace and harmony within. There is relief in knowing that you are not the body, or the mind, that you are in fact the consciousness that animates the body/mind. You are that which came before the consciousness animation of the body/mind!

It is rare for Nisargadatta Maharaj to offer exercises to assist us in this awakening to who you are, though in Pointers from Nisargatta Maharaj, he suggests the following;

“a) Make it a habit to think and speak in the passive tense. Instead of saying ‘I see something’ or ‘I hear something’, why not think the passive way; ‘something is seen’ or ‘something is heard’? The perception will then be not on the basis of an event or occurrence. In due course, the pseudo-entity ‘I’ will recede into the background.

b) Before going to sleep at night, spend about ten minutes sitting relaxed both in body and mind, taking your stand that ‘you’ are not the body-mind construct but the animating consciousness, so that this idea will impregnate your being throughout the period of your sleep.” (p 103-104)

An awakening happens, that you are not doing anything. The body is functioning by itself. Hearing happens by itself. Tiredness may appear, though it is simply an appearance, rather than ‘I am tired’, tension may appear though again it is simply appearance instead of associating yourself as ‘being stressed.’

“I am giving you nothing and taking away nothing, only pointing to that which you already are.” Papaji

Blessings In Disguise

With so many people going through incredible change at the moment, such as financial changes, relationships ending, jobs ending, I find myself thinking of a story that Osho shares.

It goes something like this;

There was a man who owned a beautiful horse, many people, including Emperors had offered him large amounts of money to buy this horse, and he always declined.

One morning he awoke to find the horse had been stolen. The town folk came together to console the man saying, “This is terrible. Many people offered you a lot of money and you wouldn’t sell the horse and now it has been stolen and you could have had all that money. You will never see the horse again”.

To which the man replied “Don’t be silly. All we know for now is that the horse is not in the stable. I do not know what the future will bring, lets wait and see what happens”.

Fourteen days later, the horse returned to the man, and had brought along 12 other beautiful horses with it.

Again the town fold gathered, this time to celebrate with the man. “You are very clever, we did not know what would happen. Now the horse has returned and brought you 12 other horses, you will be rich”.

To which the man replied “Let’s not get ahead of the situation. All we know for now is the horse has returned and brought 12 other horses with it”.

The next morning, the man’s son broke his leg whilst breaking in one of the new horses. The town folk came together to console the man. “How terrible. We are so sorry for you. Your son has broken his leg and now he will be a cripple”.

To which the man replied “Don’t jump ahead. Only say this much, my son has broken his leg – that’s all.”

The following day the government came to town and forcibly took all of the healthy young men from their families to fight the war.

The townfolk came together to see the man “You are so very wise. All our sons have been taken to war. The enemy is much stronger and all of our sons will probably be killed. In our old age, we will have nobody to look after us. You still have your son, even though he is crippled, you still have him here.”

But the man said, “Say this much – that your sons have been taken by the government. My son has been left, but there is no conclusion!”

State the fact. The relationship has ended. The job has finished. What comes from that, no one knows… so lets just wait and see what happens.

Don’t see things as a curse or a blessing. Don’t interpret it and suddenly everything is beautiful.

“What seems to us bitter trials is often blessings in disguise” Oscar Wilde

Freedom from Bondage

“Then, the question is what are ‘we’ – all of us? Each one of us, as phenomenon, is merely an appearance in the consciousness of those who perceive us, and, therefore, what we appear to be is a phenomenon – temporal, finite and perceptible to the senses, whereas what we are, what we have always been and what we shall always be, without name and form, is the noumenon – timeless, spaceless, imperceptible being.

However convincingly you may think you have ‘understood’ this basic fact, you will find it almost impossible to dis-associate yourself from the identification with your name and form as an entity. This can happen only when that which you have been thinking of as a separate entity has been totally annihilated. This is the second fundamental, the power of Maya. what is merely a phenomenon, without any independent existence of its own is considered to be ‘real’ and efforts are made by this phantom to ‘become’ something – a shadow chasing its substance. Whereas actually you have all along been the substance and never the shadow in bondage wanting liberation. How very amusing, but then that is Maya!”

Pointers from Nisargadatta Maharaj by Ramesh Balsekar

Beyond Time and Space

“Think of yourself as momentary, without a past or future, then where is the personality?

Try this and find out for yourself. In memory and anticipation, that is in the past and future, there is a clear feeling that there is a mental state under observation, whereas in the actual the feeling is primarily of being awake and present – here and now.”

Reply from Nisargadatta Maharaj, quoted from Pointers from Nisargadatta Maharaj by Ramesh Balsekar
What remains when the personality is no longer? As you have gone through life you have experienced many changes in your personality, you may have even worked to change your personality, what has remained the constant regardless of changes in personality?

Maharaj went on to say “… All you can truly say is; “I am” (meaning what is, is). The moment there is a thought of “me” as a separate personality, there is what is termed “bondage”. To realise this is the end of all seeking. When you apperceive that whatever you think yourself to be is only based on memory and anticipation your search ends and you stand aloof in full awareness of the false as false.”

A 'Headless' Heavenly Hat-trick

This morning I strolled along the oceanfront promenade where I live enjoying my last sunny moments of freedom before signing up for another work day at what I affectionately term the ‘Cube farm’.

As I wandered along, I was practicing my newly acquired ‘headless’ techniques by imagining my head had totally dissolved from my reality and instead an immense emptiness was in its place.

From this open and receptive place the vision of what LOVE really is played out in my consciousness. And even though I have read and heard this said before many times, in that moment I really understood why the real meaning of LOVE is ACCEPTANCE

While seeing from a ‘HEADLESS’ persons viewpoint, we can easily and lovingly  accept another’s uniqueness, and their freedom to express it however they choose, free of any judgement.

However, when seeing from our usual ‘THIRD PERSON’ view point ‘ (The false self we think we are based on who we look like), we are constantly in a state of finger pointing , not as an awareness raising exercise, but in hard hitting judgement of others.

Instead ,if we point that judging finger back to our own face, it reminds us of the immense emptiness we really are beyond our world of appearances and judgement and a loving capacious spaciousness that can hold the world and all it's got arises.
While pondering this insight I felt such a rush of love surging in me I felt inspired to look upward to the sky, (a headless technique that opens your being to the universe as the entire body is left behind you)

Have you ever noticed how the universe delights in sending you little timely messages when you are aligned with its true spirit?

Well this was one of those moments, because immediately above me in the sky was a massive heart, (part of sky written advertisement), yet the heart was located exactly above my gaze.

I love these little messages that seem to be appearing with greater frequency. I have noticed the more loving I feel and the more aligned I am with the universe, the more often these little miracles cross my own path.

What I am seeing more and more is the universe is a intereactive playful place when it is viewed with the awe, trust and the open heartedness of a child. And in return it loves to reward us with these spontaneous playful little childlike miracles.

Meatballs or Source? (On 'Being' Headless)

On being headless

Recently I watched a DVD I ordered from http://www.headless.org/ which is a 108 minute long film called “Douglas Harding; Lecture and Workshop, in Melbourne Australia”. I was inspired to purchase several videos from the site after having recently read about Douglas and his work and insights, and doing the experiments on the site conducted by Richard Lang.

Douglas delivers his message like no other I have seen before and that message is the most impacting of any I have ever received to date. (And I am a very weary traveller.)

He was 82 when this was filmed in 1982, and his extraordinarily insightful, witty and unique manner of demonstrating the truth of which we really are just has to be seen to be experienced.





Two Worlds .....AS If and  AS IS ?

In the workshop DVD Douglas speaks of how we each can ONLY be our own authority on how we view the world, and yet how all our lives, since babies, we have been told by others HOW we should view it, essentially completely overriding our own natural authority and ensuing ability to see reality AS IS.
.

He speaks of two worlds that we live in. The world of ‘AS IS’ (The world of truth) and the world of ‘AS IF’. (Which he refers to as the conventional world).


The world of ‘AS IF,’ is the one we have come to believe is real, and through our lack of belief in our own innate authority to decide for ourselves, we have bought the story others have told us on how the world is. This world is the one we primarily reside in and suffer through.


Conversely the world of ‘AS IS’, is the world of pure awareness where we are completely and wholly ONE with our source and the primal energy that animates us. In this world blessings abound, struggle is absent and love is the cohesive force. There is no duality, no gender, no race, and no body, no judgement, no anything; only a complete sense of being at home and in total peace with all that is.

To quote Lester Levenson, the American master who pioneered the Sedona Method

“When you realize you are the All,  you will want nothing, because The All has everything , therefore the all needs nothing"

Provable Headless Experiments

 Douglas takes the audience through several little very simple exercises that remarkably bring about a shift in perspective from the world of AS IF we now live in, to experience the world of AS IS we are meant to be living in.

In one exercise he asks the viewer to form a pair of glasses with both hands and to peer through them to observe their view of the world from that range. He asks them “NOW WHAT DO YOU SEE? “

What occurred in my experience was how small the world appeared viewed through the limited location of my two small eyes.

Then he asked the viewers to remove their hand-made spectacles and again said “NOW WHAT DO YOU SEE”?

Suddenly an awareness of an infinite expansive view of my surroundings was sensed, described by Douglas as a frameless window.

Through the experience of the two contrasting views, what occurred in me was a shift in perspective which was immediately impacting. I was now ‘seeing’ with awareness.

After following him through a few other experiments, including one with my eyes closed, a sense of having any body at all disappeared and was replaced with a sense of I AMNESS, of Oneness, of complete impersonal expansive awareness and peace, of ‘being home’ as he calls it.
I have had a cold for a week or so now, and started coughing while this was occurring, and all that was experienced was a loud noise coming out of impersonal awareness. It did not feel like the noise was in anyway associated with me as there actually now was no personal ME now sensed at all.


The Faces In  the Mirror

We go through life believing we are the third person, those faces in the mirror, which when observed from generally two feet or so away, form our reality. Who we really are though, he says, when viewed from the locale of first person singular, is directly opposite to that third person view.

And because we go through life thinking we are what we look like, our life pans out as a shallow, meaningless existence of continual suffering, when it is lived at our periphery.








The meatball has eyes

He says when we let go of falsely identifying with the pink hairy meatball with two small eyes staring back from the other side of the mirror, an immensely spacious awake interior that has the capacity to hold the entire world naturally emerges. (Douglas humorously and aptly describes our head and eyes as two tiny holes looking out of a meatball)

In the journey back to your centre, your true self, he says, that false identity you had believed yourself to be gets left behind.  And effectively, to do so, we have to fully vacate our little shallow third person imagined selves.


Zen is Faceless

The most famous Zen Koan, (said to have bought about instant enlightenment in several cases when first heard), tells how a Zen master  Hui-Neng, had  once given a now piece of advice to his brother  monk Ming, who was struggling to grasp a specific Zen teaching concerning attachment.





"See what at this very moment your own face looks like -the face you had before you (and indeed your parents) were born"

It is recorded Ming in that moment discovered the source of all things he had previously sought outside hmself were in fact within.
Douglas Harding’s concept of “Headless-ness” fits perfectly into the context of Zen.


On Having No Head

I have also just completed reading his book written when he was in his early thirties called “On Having No Head - Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious”

This book is a highly provocative and challenging, yet strangely easily grasped exploration of living Headlessly, and most definitely a life changing read.

Our Faces Change while our Centre remains unchanged

That we all have had a myriad of different faces from babyhood to old age, asks us to examine how we could possibly have ever believed we are that what we look like. Yet our reality is virtually based on this ‘nonsense and rubbish’ as he calls it, or as he puts more succinctly ‘multiple hallucinations’. Our true nature obviously emanates from another place, a place that has no faces and is the centre and the source of all life. The purpose of life Douglas says, is a conscious union with that Source.




The Path

In the DVD Douglas also talks about “The Path’ spiritual seekers often refer to in describing their journeys.

Douglas in his own journey was not content to travel down a nebulous path going nowhere in particular. He wanted results and he wanted to know when he would get them, and fortunately for us through his own insights he developed a method that could do that for us. Experiencing his work can get us off the ‘garden path’ and directly home to ourselves; where he says the direct truth of who we are is located.

Coming Home

Douglas does not claim a monopoly on the route back to SELF and succinctly expresses” Any valid ticket will get you there, any valid ticket will take you home”

He says the only requirement to experience our own inner truth is in having the courage to ‘come home’ to ourselves so we can experience who we really are.

Take it for checking

To be open and receptive to Douglas Harding’s teachings, and experientially prove then to yourself, through practicing his quirky little experiments, is this seeker’s (who has read far too many books and words to date on the matter ) highly recommended fast track path back to your true self.

Experience oneness with X-ray eyes

Recently I explored http://www.headless.org/, a site dedicated to the work of Douglas Harding. On the site are several simple exercises which when carried out gave me an instant shift in awareness, no longer did I feel I was a separate entity looking out at the world through my ‘own’ eyes, but pure awareness looking out at the world where my head and eyes are located.

Richard Lang, who manages the site, explains in simple participatory exercises how our perception of objects in our visual sphere is created and labelled by our minds, dependent on the distance from we perceive those objects.

What we are usually ‘seeing’ is only the surface perception of an object or person from a fixed distance (several feet away is our usual sphere for close perception). If instead, we were to examine all objects from a different distance, what then would we see?

Using the human body as an example, if we were to move our visual perception to an inch away the person viewed, what would we then see? We would see skin, hair, freckles, blemishes etc. And if we were peer further inside the body (via X-ray and microscopic vision) we would see bones, blood, vessels organs, and then on even closer inspection molecules, atoms and eventually only the space between.

The usual fixed view of all we see is essentially artificial, as it is simply perception based on the distance an object is seen, and seen at its surface only. And yet we base our experience of life and of others from this limited perception.

This morning I played with this concept while travelling to work in my usual way, travelling across Sydney Harbour on the Manly Ferry.

As I observed all around me both animate and inanimate objects (people and things) I imagined I could see through everyone and everything with super powered X-ray eyes and experienced some very blissful feelings as I was suddenly struck by actually ‘seeing’ for the first time the one space that holds and connects us all.

Even the Sydney Opera House, which I pass on the ferry, this morning, took on a ghostly appearance as I X-rayed through its solid opaque exterior to see only the space between all of the elements which comprise its structure.

From this little experiment I have really seen how superficial our view of life is; as it is simply based on the distance it is perceived.

And how on closer examination and investigation of what we view superficially and believe to be the final reality, the unifying space that connects all reveals there is no separation between anyone or anything.

Sandcastle

"I" as this sandcastle
feel so clever to have become this
standing so tall and proud
only to be knocked down
and to become a mere grain of sand
in the beach once more
where I am nothing
yet I am all.

Your True Self

Your true self


An exert from “I am that” by Nisargadatta Maharaj

“That which you are, your true self, you love it, and whatever you do, you do for your own happiness. To find it, to know it, to cherish it is your basic urge. Since time immemorial you loved yourself, but not wisely. Use your body and mind wisely in the service of the self, that is all. Be true to your own self, love your self absolutely. Do not pretend that you love others as yourself. Unless you have realised them as one with yourself, you cannot love them. Don’t pretend to be what you are not, don’t refuse to be what you are. Your love of others is the result of self-knowledge, not its cause. Without self realisation, no virtue is genuine. When you know beyond all doubting that the same life flows through all that is, and you are that life, you will love all naturally and spontaneously.

When you realise that depth and fullness of your love for yourself, you know that every living being and the entire universe are included in your affection. But when you look at any thing as separate from you, you cannot love it for you are afraid of it. Alienation causes fear and fear deepens alienation. It is a vicious circle. Only self realisation can break it. Go for it resolutely.”

One of the most simple ways to discover who you really are is an experiment, called the pointing experiment. Truly wonderful and so simple.

Visit http://www.headless.org/experiments.htm

Soothing News

So much of “my” life has been about seeking. Funny though, for a long time I didn’t even know they had a name for it.

I spent years, searching for truth, knowing there was something more than what I was seeing in this day-to-day life. I have lived like many, doing my perceived best. My best to help others, to be responsible, to make money, to honour all of my commitments etc

Though it has been in recent times, through reading works of great sages such as Ramana Maharshi, Ramesh Balsekar, Gangaji and many others, that the truth has begun to reveal itself.

None of this is in “my” control. Life is happening through me, not to me! Or to coin a phrase, “Thy will be done”.

A sudden awareness!

In recent times, I experienced a sudden physical illness. I was diagnosed with a sudden onset of an immune disorder. It came at a time that was already strained financially, yet it was such a moment of awareness, that there was nothing “I” could do. My body became so fatigued that some days I would sleep for 14 – 20 hours a day, when I was awake, my eyes were heavy and my mind was blurry.

Many fears and emotional patterns have been revealed through this experience; from my heart I am deeply grateful. Up until this time, I still believed that some how, I was in control.

Thy Will Be Done!

I understand, that this is exactly what I was meant to be doing, otherwise it wouldn’t have happened that way.

When as a family we were finding it difficult to make ends meet, it never ceased to surprise me, how someone would offer a helping hand or money would suddenly appear from somewhere unexpected places, though I would often feel a sense of guilt that “I” had not provided it or that “someone” was helping us.

I remember reading that even though Mother Theresa may not have been rich in finances; her life was so perfectly taken care of and she lived such a rich and fulfilling life. She lived and inspiring life of trust and there was always enough for her every need, so that she could continue to assist many.

What I became aware of, is that everything that we need, is always provided. Sometimes it may come through a seemingly miracle, sometimes through pardon, though all that we need when we are willing to see, is provided.

Being that all that is consciousness, it all comes from the same place, God, Source, Consciousness. The personal ownership or doer ship is eliminated and instead there is allowing of what is to be, without the sense and frustration of trying to control things.

Inner peace is revealed with the acceptance of thy will be done, and the frustration of trying to control, falls away.

Manly

The days of our lives are all billions of precious "nows"

 strung together by "beingness"

Ancient rock formations adorn the high places ....

The ancient life of whales adorn the lower places ....

The Manly Ferry cuts its way ....

To Circular Quay.

Journey to Lester's Land

"Walk in Beauty"

Your True Nature ...

Your true nature is beyond description.
It cannot be known by the mind, yet it exists.
It is the source of everything.

--- Nisargadatta Maharaj

Who am I?

The Sense of "I am" (Consciousness)

When I met my Guru, he told me:

"You are not what you take yourself to be.
Find out what you are.
Watch the sense 'I am',
find your real Self."

I obeyed him, because I trusted him. I did as he told me. All
my spare time I would spend looking at myself in silence. And what a
difference it made, and how soon!

My teacher told me to hold on to the sense 'I am' tenaciously and not
to swerve from it even for a moment. I did my best to follow his
advice and in a comparatively short time I realized within myself the
truth of his teaching. All I did was to remember his teaching, his
face, his words constantly. This brought an end to the mind; in the
stillness of the mind I saw myself as I am -- unbound.

I simply followed (my teacher's) instruction which was to focus the
mind on pure being 'I am', and stay in it. I used to sit for hours
together, with nothing but the 'I am' in my mind and soon peace and
joy and a deep all-embracing love became my normal state. In it all
disappeared -- myself, my Guru, the life I lived, the world around
me. Only peace remained and unfathomable silence.

--- Nisargadatta Maharaj

... The lineage of nine gurus ... Navnath Sampradaya:

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj belongs to the Navnath Sampradaya, the lineage which originated from the nine gurus. Nisargadatta himself did not stress his lineage with most of his western devotees

External Links

DVD"S about Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

http://www.maharajnisargadatta.com/

http://www.nisargadatta.net/

Remembering Nisargadatta Maharaj, reflections of David Godman

Various articles on Sri Nisargadatta

Videos about Sri Nisargadatta

Who am I?

"You are not what
you take yourself to be.

Find out what you are.

Watch the sense 'I am',
find your real Self."

Releasing emotions

We all experience emotions, some of them feel great others not so great.

Sometimes emotions can even seem quite overwhelming.

The past six months I ventured on journey within, which at first seemed quite daunting. At the beginning of the year I made some very focused decisions of how I wanted my life to be, with no idea at the time of how I would achieve it.

One of my decisions was I wanted to master my emotions, rather than feeling like they were mastering me. I had decided I didn't want to keep changing my state and trying to think happy thoughts, because although that was effective some of the times it was not always effective when I needed it most.

So a new journey began, to go within and it has been an amazing self-journey so far. I would like to share a part of it that has had a huge impact for me along the way. There are very few words to describe the peace that I have felt since using this method and it is so simple that you can use it anywhere, anytime. Often in our lives we think simple won't be as effective, don't take my word for it and try this simple method out.

Exercise 1

Start by placing a pencil or pen in your hand and begin to clutch it, hold it as tight as you can. Notice how the muscles become tight and contracted the longer that you hold on. Keep gripping it for a moment and then ask yourself these three simple questions:

Would I let this go?
Could I let this go?
When?

Allow your hand to let go and the pencil to drop to the floor.

Practice this several times over, until you have a sense of what it feels like when you let it go.

Exercise 2

Think about a problem that has been presenting in your life. It may be to do with relationships, money, career or anything else. It may be a problem that has been presenting repetitiously.

Now as the emotions begin to stir up within your body, notice how you may feel a clutching feeling in your stomach or chest and WELCOME that sensation, you don't need to label it or make any judgments about it, just simply welcome them. Allow them to be there. And then ask these three questions;

Would I let this go?
Could I let this go?
When?

And let go.

You may begin to notice an instant feeling of relief from doing this exercise on the first time, though often you will repeat it several times until you feel a lightness and notice that there is no more clutching feeling inside, instead there is a feeling of peace and possibilities.

Releasing Emotions

Often people find a bit of resistance presents about welcoming in a negative emotion, yet the truth is the emotion is already there isn't it? So instead of attempting to pretend that it is not there, you are choosing to welcome it, so that it can move through you, as it wants to do. All emotions that present want to move through you, so you are making the process much easier by welcoming the emotions.

As I said, don't take my word for it. Try it out for yourself!

A man called Lester Leverson, who at age 42 was sent home from hospital after his 2nd heart attack, being told that he had three weeks to live, developed this method in the 1950’s. Lester took a journey within and noticed that by releasing emotions rather than brushing over them, he felt lighter and lighter, happier and happier. Lester also became aware that when he was expressing loving kindness, his body was well and his life was flowing. Yet when he was wanting and withholding his love he experienced ill health, in many forms.

Thankfully, Lester went onto live for another 42 years after that original diagnosis, which lead to the development of The Sedona Method and The Release Technique. This is a very small preview of what these methods can offer.

I would love to hear your feedback of your experiences with using this method. The key is to keep practicing this release technique through out your day, as emotions present.

You are not your emotions or your thoughts

Remember you are not your emotions or your thoughts; you are that which aware of them.


Enjoy!

You are welcome to contact Kyla

Allowing What Is To Be

Have you ever considered how life would be different if you allowed what is in this moment to be rather than resisting what is?

It is a topic that has come to my attention many times in life, and at times I thought I would understand and do my best to let go. Then I became aware that yes it is easier to let go than to hold on, and it is totally effortless to allow and observe what unfolds. And the funny this is, what is - IS in this moment, whether you allow it or not.

How do tall palms resist the wind? We often resist situations that arise in our lives, because we don’t like them or they don’t fit into our plans, yet the truth is, what is in this moment- IS! No amount of not liking it will change what IS in this moment, though our attitude towards what is can have a dramatic impact on our experience of what we are experiencing.

A recent experience has reinforced this truth in my life experience. I became suddenly very tired, though with workshops to run and speaking events approaching, I ignored these signs and pushing against them. Until the tiredness became so overwhelming that a blood test result revealed an autoimmune disorder. When I finally stopped, the stopping resulting in 2 months of sleeping 14 – 20 hours a day, still with some resistance.

The interesting part of this experience is that it was not until I stopped struggling with the illness, and my beliefs around what illness meant, that my body began to show signs of healing.

By opening to the experience of physical illness, there has been so many learning’s revealed to me, that otherwise I would not have seen. It reminded me that;

I am not the mind
I am not the body
I am not my emotions
I am not my thoughts

So who am I?

Who is it that observes the body, mind, thoughts and emotions?

The more that you become aware of that which observes all in this gift called life, the greater the experience of this life as a gift.
Just for this moment, stop and turn awareness to awareness itself. That which is aware of deep sleep, that which is aware of the coming and goings of thoughts and emotions.

What is - IS!

What is - IS! There is no effort involved in what is, the only effort is the resistance. The resistance can come in many forms, including comparisons.

As humans we are gifted with intellect yet that gift we often turn against ourselves and compare ourselves to others and where we think we should or could be, rather than accepting and loving where we are now, allowing that to unfold and reveal to us the magic of the moment.

The infinite moment

There is only this moment, the infinite moment. Allow yourself to experience it fully by allowing the emotions to rise and fall as they do. Stop, even for just a 1/4 of a second and welcome the emotions as the rise. Be still. Observe the emotion, even take the name of emotions off it and observe the energy moving. It will take less than a second, and in such a brief moment, such wonderment can be revealed to those whom are watching.

A battery is charged with both a positive negative energy, both equally important. As we humans have both positive and negative emotions, both have significant importance also. Though as a culture, we do our very best to push away our negative emotions and slap on a happy face. Negative emotions play an important role within this experience of life; they are wonderful indicators of what is happening at a subconscious level. The key is to allow the emotions to be here and pass through without the attachment to the story of why the emotions came about.

Allow judgements to fall away

Observe judgements and let them drop away. When you find yourself saying this is right or wrong, allow it to simply BE as it is, neither right nor wrong.

What is - IS in this moment. Allowing it to be here, without judgement, simply observing opens your experience of life to wonderful new understandings of this gift called the present moment.

How not to be stressed

If you are like most people, being stressed is quiet easy. So how do you not be stressed in day to day life?

Be in this moment... yes this moment, not tomorrow, or yesterday, right here in this moment.

John Lennon said it well when he sang,

"Life is what happens to you,
when you are busy making other plans".

Stress is what happens when the mind begins to project the past into the future, suddenly you feel your body tighten and you become and feel uptight.


The mind is made up of memories, so when you have a problem, be that a new or old problem, the mind goes searching through its recorded memories to find a solution. If it cannot find an answer it will then project the past into the future. And the past may not have even been something that you personally experienced; it may be from a story you were told or even a TV program that you viewed. It's all there, recorded in the mind.

Really the mind is saying, "I don't have an answer", yet you still find yourself looking to the mind for an answer. As Larry Crane says,

it's a little like if you kept looking into an empty filing cabinet over and over again...it's empty.

So how do you stop stressing and find the answers you are looking for?

(1) "Can you let go of trying to figure this out?"

My first suggestion is to ask yourself "Can I let go of trying to figure this out?" . Now this is a decision, and because you no longer wish to feel stressed, the answer will of course be "yes".

(2) "Become focussed in the NOW"

The next thing is to check in and see what is here in this moment, is there any of that problem here right now? You might still think there is, but check and see is that problem here right now? What is here now, in this moment?

When the mind is living in the horizontal world, as in the past and future, it is busy, noisy and constantly trying to conceptualise and develop strategies for the future. In this mind set, you are most likely missing the beauty of the present, through being occupied in the future, which may not even come.

When you bring your awareness to this moment, the vertical world, you will notice a sense of calm and stillness. The mind at first, will probably pop in and tell you “This is boring this quietness, nothing can be accomplished here” I am going to suggest that you observe any thoughts of this nature and simply allow them to pass through. Enjoy the calmness.

You might then like to spend some time in this space, you could even call it meditation time, where you simply observe your thoughts as though you were watching clouds passing across the sky. Just watching, nothing to change. Notice how the thoughts pass by. And if you find your mind chasing any thoughts, as soon as you become aware of that occurring, bring your attention back to your breath, and the space between each breath.

(3) Enjoy that space, the calmness
which is at your core!

These simple questions can assist you to start experiencing more of your true self and the bonus can be that incredibly the answers to your problems start to reveal themselves in perfect time. You will notice that answers will start to appear in ways you have never thought of, intuitive flashes, inspiration or random acts of kindness appear.

The true beauty is the awareness of each moment and the gift that this moment presents, when you are present.

What is fear?

Fear is something most of us don’t want to experience. It can conjure up thoughts of being totally overwhelmed and debilitated, causing the body to respond to the very thought of a fear with pressure in the chest, sick feelings in the stomach and even causing the heart to beat rapidly. So it no wonder we don’t want to experience fear.

Being willing to meet fear, face to face, you open to the opportunity to experience the fear and allow it to unravel in front of you, to reveal that the fear is nothing when met fully! The greatest fear was of the fear of itself.

The interesting part is that even though you may deny your fears, they are merely pushed to the side, so to speak and only to arise at the most inopportune (or opportune) times. Again may find yourself pushing this fear aside as quickly as possible.

A Simple Example to contemplate

Say for example you had a fear of public speaking, and through your business or work you are offered an opportunity to speak to an audience of 300 people, about that a subject that you are totally passionate about. The fear for some of you reading this might be so overwhelming from the moment of the invitation, so much so, that you say “No thanks” to this amazing opportunity.

For others you might find yourself saying, “Yes” and wonder how you will deal with it later.

Tomorrow is the day of the speaking event, you toss and turn in bed that night, stomach churning, wondering if may be you have food poisoning or a stomach upset (you might even find yourself hoping that this is true!).

In this moment, the fear has arisen to be met! So rather than pushing on through the fear STOP, even if it is only for ½ a second, STOP and be still, willing to meet this fear.

If you find it hard at first to simply stop, you can ask yourself, what is it that I am most afraid of in this moment? You might be surprised at what thoughts rise, it might be of embarrassing yourself, maybe that people won’t like what you have to say, maybe something totally different. I will often take the fear as far as I can by asking something like, “What if nobody ever approved of me ever again?” The fear then springs forward to be met.

Stop completely
and meet the fear
face to face

So in this moment of meeting the fear, STOP! Completely STOP! You will notice patterns of wanting to move on quickly or change the subject arises, you can consciously choose to let those pass through as you STOP and observe them. There is no need to change a thing, simply observe, watch how the energy moves around the body then suddenly subsides and opens you to experience a feeling that is often described as expansiveness, nothingness, stillness, peaceful and loving.

This idea is not to become a new concept and strategy for the mind, simply an opportunity to meet with fear and allow it to pass, as it does naturally. What ever the fear is, be willing to STOP and experience it in the moment.

When we ignore any emotions, including fear, the energy and lesson is stored within the body and often represents later. So why not take the opportunity to meet it as it presents.

When you allow emotions to be present, you may also notice stories beginning to present too! You may even notice many stories begin to appear. The stories of blame “he/she did this to me”, the stories of guilt “it is all because I did that terrible thing”, the stories of justified anger “I have a right to be angry about this”. Simply observe the stories as the appear, the mind may present many memories when you are ready to clear or complete patterns in your life. So as best you can, observe the stories, and allow them to pass through and notice that when you don’t delve into the stories, it simply fades away, as does the emotions.


Gangaji

As Gangaji asks “Are you willing to have your heart broken?” Within that breaking that heart opens. It doesn’t mean that you go looking for experiences of having your heart broken, simply allowing it to happen when it does.

When you are unwilling to have your heart broken, you may not be fully living; protecting yourself from the possibility of having your heart broken can be a very consuming role. A role that may be denying you the opportunity of experiencing the very thing that can open your heart to love as you have never loved before, and to experience every moment in life as life enhancing rather than events to be avoided.

Have you every noticed that what you avoid the most is that which persists in your life and represents itself over and over again? This is very situation that persists may be offering you an opportunity to open and experience the unknown.

Life is made up of both positive and negative energy, positive and negative emotions. Neither is right or wrong or better or worse than the other, they are both simply energy. Both the positive and negative are needed to fully experience life.

“This too will pass” is a wonderful reminder at this point. As the emotions are passing you are opening to a joyful understanding and knowing that life is a wonderful collection of experiences, when fully experienced in each moment.


Meeting with fear is an opening to freedom!

Vipassana - Meditation Boot Camp ...or... Nirvanic Peace

To next appear ....

My experiences with Vipassana over the last five years:
Vipassana - Meditation Boot Camp ...or... Nirvanic Peace?





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Who would you be without .......

I am sure many are familiar with the work of Katie Byron and her question inquiring

“Who would you be without your story”?

When I first heard that spoken it resonated very deeply with me and really gave me the first insight into how we attach to our personal stories with all their incumbent programs, beliefs, experiences and memories. Making the distinction as to whether or not we really are our story is what her question asks of us.

All stories are personal accounts we tell of our lives that are essentially impersonal if you are to accept the concept of a one Consciousness animating us all. We get so caught up in these stories, particularly the painful ones, we virtually become the story through the continual re-telling of it to anyone who will listen, and unwittingly ensuring the belief in the story becomes more and more ingrained.

In the end we haven’t a clue who we really are, mostly lost in those stories being a victim of someone or other, and generally not very happy.

Through various spiritual practices the story can be seen for what it is and gradually let go of allowing consciousness to fully express its unlimited potentiality and not be blocked out by our old worn out stories of what we once thought was us, but definitely no longer is.

“Who would I be without my name”?

Recently I had the thought “Who would I be without my name”? Just saying that out loud had me feeling a deeply diminished identity.

So then I experimented with dropping my name at any quiet opportunity I had. Inquiring of myself “Who would I be without my name?” seemed remarkably to strip from me my ego (my sense of self and its story) and leave me quite disorientated as if I had no known characteristics, kind of in an empty yet peaceful space, a complete nobody.



Identifying with our names it seems can keep us right in our stories, particularly the ones we thought we had left behind. Our name after all encapsulates our entire life’s history. Our name is our own personal label glued to us like a tattoo. When it is spoken we respond to it and take ownership of all it entails. Our entire life’s identity seems to be wrapped up in our names.



If the stories of our lives are sub-files then our name it seems, is the title of the zip file that holds them all in memory.

Maybe the use of deed poll is the only answer!

Ho’oponopono - a personal account

I first came across Ho'oponopono in 2008 when I was in the midst of a serious illness and fairly intensely driven spiritually trying to find answers to life and make sense of what was happening to me.





Myself with Dr Ihaleakala Hew Len (known as Dr Len)
in Brisbane in 2009

Ho’oponpono, I came to understand, is an ancient Hawaiian spiritual teaching whose practice basically means ‘to make right’ or to heal, by taking 100% responsibility for any relationships that are not right in your life.

An Hawaiian woman, called Mornah Simeona, developed the Self Identity Ho’oponopono method (discussed below) as a practice performed by one person only, unlike the original Ho’oponopono method which was practiced by the entire community.

 Mornah Nalamaku Simeona

Zero Limits

Joe Vitale’s Book “Zero Limits” tells the true story of how through the continual practice of Ho’oponopono the power of ‘one’ can heal ‘many’.

In this case the ‘many’ were an entire ward of criminally insane incarcerated in Hawaii State Mental Hospital and were considered beyond cure. The ‘one’ was the resident psychiatrist Dr Hew Len.

Although such a tale sounds more like an urban myth it is in fact true and I later went on to meet this enigmatic healer Dr Hew Len one year later when he delivered his first Australian ‘Self Identity Ho’oponopono’ workshop in Brisbane in May of 2009.

Joe Vitale and Dr Hew Len

Dr Hew Len and Hawaii State Hospital

As the book Zero limits recounts, in this ward for the criminally insane, where staff continually left, paint peeled off the walls, plumbing problems abounded, plants would not grow and a dark stagnant energy of evil pervaded, Dr Len arrived as resident psychiatrist.

The only treatment he says, he gave those patients, was to examine their files and when the disgust and judgement arose in him reading of the ghastly acts they had perpetrated (murder, rape etc) he would ask Divinity “Please forgive me for whatever it is in me that is making these people show up in my life”. He would apologise for his judgements and keep extending love and forgiveness to the patients.

In time all the problems associated with the ward were eventually resolved. Plants started to grow again, staff stayed, the energy was completely transformed and the patients completely rehabilitated and the ward was finally closed down.



What we project

It may be hard to accept but according to Dr. Len if it is in your life, it is in you. (Stored in us as data, in the form of memories in the subconscious).

Another comment of his I really like is “Have you ever noticed if you have a problem, you are there?” In other words if it’s in your life somehow you are responsible.


Cleaning


Erasing the memories in our subconscious to bring us back to a Zero state is known as ‘cleaning’. This cleaning process can take many variations but the way I first learned and still use is by repeating the following four phrases

“I am sorry, Please forgive me, I love you and Thank you.”

 Dr Masaru Emoto's water crystal photos demonstrate the power of love and hate.

We all carry memories which, when activated, continually replay through our reactions to others. Those others sadly are the very ones we are generally in relationship with and the conflict caused by those reactions remain inside us festering and creating ongoing negativity in the relationship. Dr Hew Len often quotes Shakespeare “They are only memories replaying the woes”.


What Dr Len shared with us at the weekend workshop was he always cleans any room a workshop is to be held in for weeks prior to the event. He spoke of the sacred space within a room and how it should be honoured. He also said by his incessant cleaning of the room and also cleaning the names of the people attending the workshop, only exactly the right people would sit next to each other.


How I met Kyla

It was at the Brisbane workshop last year that I met Kyla. I arrived slightly late and her husband Marty beckoned me to sit with them. It transpired they originally came from Manly where I lived. (In another state and 600 miles away) Although my initial connection was more with Marty, because he was always laughing and cracking jokes, after the workshop Kyla and I stayed in touch and our friendship has just grown from strength to strength as we have discovered more and more similarities between us. We both also made another great friend there and all three of us stay in touch. We are so grateful to Dr Len for such happenstance!!



Zero State

The Zero referred is our original state or CLEAN state where we are free of any memories at all, basically a tabula rasu (clean slate) which allows Divinity to shine its light through us unimpeded and thereby allowing us to flourish in life unimpeded by negativity. (As you were as a baby) The practice of cleaning continually (I am sorry, please forgive me, I love you and thank you) is a petition to Divinity to erase those memories we carry that create the conflict and unhappiness in our lives


Taking 100% Responsibility

Taking 100% responsibility means if a problem shows up in your life there are memories inside your subconscious that have attracted it to you. That may be hard to accept given how we sometimes feel we have been really hurt by another, but with continual practice the ensuing lightness one feels as the negative feelings drop away, and the miraculous changes in some relationships previously considered unsalvageable, are all the proof that is required.


Fresh Information

Recently new information has passed my way courtesy of a teleseminar given freely by Mark Ryan which is two and half hours of him sharing his experiences with Ho’oponopono and the others he has connected to on that journey.

What has come to light are some very powerful additions to what I have understood about this process to date.

Mark was asked by a caller what exactly forgiveness was. He replied he had found in his work that many people cannot say “I am sorry, please forgive me” even silently in their minds. They can say “Thank you” easily but also struggle with “I love you”.

This made me see how powerfully we are locked into victim mindsets where all that happens to us is because of someone else’s actions, and our complete resistance to taking any responsibility for our part.

Mark’s reply might change the minds of anyone struggling with that resistance.



What is Forgiveness?

He asked the caller if she had ever noticed how contracted she became when holding on to judgements of others?

By holding tight to those negative feeling we are left in a contracted state carrying a very heavy load. Physically that load manifests as a tight feeling in our chest area. Equally that memory of judgement we have held so tightly to, triggers intense disquiet in the form of anger, anxiety and often a desire for revenge.


Letting go of those judgements

Certainly carrying these judgements of others in our lives is no recipe for a peaceful life. I know in my own life just having one relationship that is not flowing diminishes even those that are working.

Therefore by taking 100% responsibility for those negative judgements we carry, (as apart from the actual person’s behaviour) it becomes clear holding onto them only clogs up our own life and drains our energy. This insight then makes the process of forgiveness something we are only too willing to do. When our energy is clogged with these negative memories, the light of Divinity is unable to shine love through us out to others. It is only through being loving we become expansive and can radiate our light out to others.



Mark used the metaphor of sap moving through a tree to bloom as apples or oranges for others to enjoy. When we are blocked the sap does not flow and therefore nothing blooms from us for others to enjoy.

Saying “I am sorry, please forgive” then heals us first before it heals the other. You become the open vessel, the carrier of the healing power of love.


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Our Inner Critic

Recently, following this insight into forgiveness, I was inspired to take responsibility for my own ‘Inner critic ‘or ‘inner judge’. The inner critic is that not very friendly but only too prominent voice in your head that never gives you any credit, judges you endlessly and harshly, and wants to frequently remind you how useless you are, no matter what you may have achieved.

This little critter is essentially just a memory that manifested during childhood when we learned to respond to parental praise or berating dependent on our behaviour.

From my perspective, to reach full potential, this is one memory that we really need to petition Divinity to erase. So why not ask Divinity for forgiveness for believing our own negative judgements so we can let love fill up ourselves.




Cutting the Cords that bind

Another powerful cleaning tool that I have recently heard came from a person who lived in Hawaii for many years and was a long time Ho’oponopono practitioner.

I have tried it several times and felt immense relief and release as a result.

It is known as ‘Cutting the cords” At the end of each day before going to sleep the idea is to conjure up in front of you every single person you have had a relationship with throughout the day on any level . You then imagine you are connected to them all via an invisible web of cords. Once they are all assembled in front of you, you then imagine yourself cutting those cords that hold them to you. Allow them to freely float away out of your consciousness and feel the freedom that follows, it is astounding!


Our impressions become reality

The explanation of its power is the impression created in our mind of whom we meet is based on our judgement of them. That judgement we hold of them keeps them that way to us and does not allow them to go their own way and heal and grow.

And where else can this mind projection be more prevalent than in our families of birth where our greatest judgements of each other are often set in stone? Once we have fled the nest we grow in all kinds of ways until we return home for a visit, where we usually oblige our parents or siblings by being exactly who they expect us to be.


An invisible web

We are all connected via an invisible web and this practice is an opportunity every night to mentally snip yourself free from those you have enmeshed with during that day. I just love this process. It is so freeing.

Also, because you have cut the cords and let them go, your dreams are most likely to be instructive ones from your inner teacher, rather than dreams based on your day’s activities.



Simplicity

Lastly, all I can add here, is Ho’oponopono is growing rapidly in momentum because of its simplicity and delivery of quite miraculous results. And I, for one, have been exceptionally blessed to have experienced some of those miracles in my own life and look forward to experiencing many more.

For more detailed information on the process and history of it please visit the following website

http://www.hooponopono.org/