JUST HOW IMPORTANT ARE ANY OF US?

Todays quote is from Don Juan which appears in Castaneda's book, The Wheel of Time. It reads as follows:


Dwelling upon the self too much produces a terrible fatigue. A man in that position is deaf and blind to everything else. The fatigue itself makes him cease to see the marvels all around him.




I find this quote to be very interesting. As I look back in my past I have been surprised to find that my "EGO" self has been demanding to get everyone to listen to me. I have tried for way too long to be everybody's friend. Please don't get me wrong, I still try to treat everyone with as  much love and respect as I can. And I do love everyone. But for way too long I have felt it necessary to get others to see my point of view on things. Slowly I have learned that it is not my responsibility to "save" anyone, or to see that everybody does understand my position on things. And like the afore mentioned quote I have allowed my ego self at many times in the past to think it is something bigger than it is. Many years ago I had what I term---Saving the world syndrome---. Thankfully I have now learned that it is not up to me to "fix" anyone. If someone does get even a small dab of good from what I say or write about, then that is my intent. But now I realize my "acts" serve no purpose other than me following my heart. Like the quote says--it will wear a person out if he or she is constantly thinking and acting from the ego. And by focusing too much on one's self, well, that will quickly tire out anyone. So in my later years I have learned (and still learning) that all I need do is to follow my heart, do what I feel is best not only for myself but for everyone, and then just let it all go. As Don Juan taught, which I hope to discuss at a later date, after one sets his or her intent to any particular act and then carries out this deed , then they should not worry about whether the act itself was "good" "bad", or anything in between. He just lets it go and awaits for the next act that calls to him. I have come to find out that when I am able to live in this way, I do have plenty of opportunities to look at all the wonders that surround me daily. And as a result, I find myself way more energetic and much more happy. I feel one has to "own" all of their actions instead of placing blame or bad luck or anything else to it. It is ok to screw up just as long as one learns the lesson that his actions brought about. I now leave all of you wonderful folks with thoughts of pure unconditional love, perfect peace, and perfect enlightenment. May you do yourself a good deed by doing something nice for someone just because you can. Then you will know what it feels like to be part of the solution instead of being part of the problems this world faces. I bless you all!

THE TEACHINGS OF DON JUAN

Some of you may be familiar with Don Juan, but in case he is not known to you please allow me to introduce you to some of his teachings. Don Juan Matus was  a Yaqui Indian shaman from Mexico. Carlos Castaneda was mentored by Don Juan and wrote several books based on what he learned from Don Juan. The ancient shamans were taught to see the world we live in as only an illusionary experience. They claimed to be able to see a ball of energy in each human being they met. According to them we are all connected by strands of energy that radiate outward from us to connect with all. If you have never read any of Castaneda's books I think you may like them. But again, maybe not. I have been rereading one of the books titled The Wheel of Time. In this book Castaneda shares some quotes from books published. I plan on sharing some of his work with all of you in the following weeks. First, I will write the quote and then explain what it means to me. Again this will only be my opinion and nothing else. But I do hope you will get some good out of Don Juan's teachings like I have. Don Juan called the shaman's path  those of a warrior. To the ancient shamans one must strive to take the path of a warrior if one is to be free from all the illusions of this 3d world of ours. I'll begin with the following quote which comes from The Wheel of Time.


Nothing in this world is a gift. Whatever has to be learned must be learned the hard way.
A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war: wide awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. Going to knowledge or going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and whoever makes it might never live to regret it. When a man has fulfilled all four of these requisites-- to be wide awake, to have fear, respect, and absolute assurance--there are no mistakes for which he will have to account: under such conditions his actions lose the blundering quality of the acts of a fool. If such a man fails, or suffers a defeat, he will have lost only a battle, and there will be no pitiful regrets over that.




My thoughts on this is a s follows. Nothing is a gift. How right is that! We humans often times receive something and call it a gift. But I believe that somewhere along the line the recipient of the gift has earned it in some way. I also have come to see that some of the gifts we do receive come to us in a way we do not like to see. At first glance that is. Most of my dearest "gifts" have come when I am suffering in some way. The suffering I despise turns out to be one of the biggest lessons, which in turn help me as I try to become the best human being I possible can. Sadly, lots of us had rather be in anguish over some event in our lives, than to accept that anguish as just an opportunity to learn. I have found that the harder the suffering , the greater it turns out to be. Yes, it takes me time to see and fully understand why I am plagued with what seems to be turmoil. As always, this turmoil turns out to teach me my greatest lessons. As for going for knowledge, we all must learn who we are and what we are supposed to be doing. O ne must have a reverent awe about this life and must constantly be alert to what he or she is thinking. I don't believe that Don Juan was speaking of fear in the way we sense fear most of the time. To me, it means not to be afraid to seek knowledge but to use the fear in a positive way. Kind of like when I am faced with a big decision about something, I have to realize I may be fearful of the outcome but that I still have to face that fear head on. And also to give that decision all the respect it deserves. And when I make that decision being wide awake, having fear and respect for the outcome, and having assurance that the outcome will be as it is supposed to be, even if it is not the result I was seeking, then things are as they should be. If my decision turns out to be a not so good one I will only have lost that battle, and I will not carry regret around with me like old baggage. As Don Juan taught, a warrior must be light and never look back at his actions. He knows his actions were everything but also they were nothing. That will be a subject I hope to talk about later. To the uninitiated  a lot of Don Juan's teachings might sound quite contradictory, but when one becomes enlightened it becomes quite clear. I now leave all of you with thoughts of pure unconditional love, perfect peace, and understanding. Be good to yourself and even better to others!

HOLDING ON TO BELIEFS

Its been said that we all need something to believe in. Think I may agree with that but at times I do question it. I read a quote from Raymond Charles Barker  which said: You cannot have a rigidity of belief and have a creative flow of ideas.  I know I agree with that one. As I think upon that quote I am reminded of just how hard it is for me at times to give up a rigid belief just because I have held it for so long. I must admit that when I am doing inner maintenance on my belief systems I really don't like finding out that I may have been wrong so often. None of us particularly like admitting we were wrong. Hey, and I'm wrong a lot. But knowing this does help me to keep an open mind on all of my beliefs. And if something speaks to my heart  and tells me I have been wrong I honestly try to replace my old beliefs with a new one which rings more true. It must be true that if we do hold on too tightly to a belief, then we are choking our ability to have a new and more creative flow of ideas. I have also found out that if one just tries to surround themselves with people who believe the same way they do, what chance to they then have to even entertain the thought of a new idea about things? Maybe all of us would do ourselves a favor if we let the grip on our beliefs loosen up just a bit. And then maybe we will learn a new way of living. Personally , I always find myself going back to that old adage of Live and let live. Your beliefs and my beliefs may seem to be the exact opposite but if we examine them real closely we may find they are really not that different after all. I continue to hold my belief that one day the entire world will learn to live as one. And that we will be able to accept and love even those who don't believe as we do. Whatever your beliefs I hope it brings you much love, peace, and enlightenment. And hopefully you will share your belief with others but not tell them it is the only "right" way to think. May all of us start taking the advice found in the Bible which says to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And maybe the words from a Garth Brooks tune (When the world's big enough for all different views, when we all can worship from our own kind of pews, we shall be free). May all of you have the most loving and joyful weekend ahead!

THE SUN IS SHINING

I know all of us have some "bad" times in our lives. When we are having to deal with things that cause us pain or make us feel angry and resentful, I have found it useful to try and remember that the sun will come  out again. I know its hard to see this when we are feeling low. But no matter how uneasy we may feel at any given time, that old sun will definitely come out again. It is always there even when we cannot see or feel it. Light always dispels darkness so I believe it is important to remember that this light is always there just waiting for us to allow it to shine its truth and beauty on us once again. My hope today is that each of you are in a state of mind where the sun is shining brightly on you. But if this is not the case, then I hope you can take a moment, relax, learn whatever lesson life is trying to teach you, and then reach out and grab that light and soak in the warmth of truth and understanding. And please remember that when this light shines on you, it would be great if you shared it with everyone you meet. May this brand new week ahead bring all of you much love, inner peace, and wisdom.

LIFE'S CROSSWORD PUZZLE

Lots of times I begin my morning with a cup of coffee and a crosswords puzzle to try and solve.
 This morning for some reason I got to thinking how closely a crossword puzzle can mirror our lives as a human being. In life we wake up with a brand new day before us. It is like  a blank puzzle beckoning to us to jump in and fill in the blanks. The puzzle has clues just as our life gives us clues as to what it is we should be doing. When I read the clue the answer either jumps right out at me or I must wait until I know the answer. Same thing in life. The easy ones are filled in quickly but the harder ones take more time and a lot of thinking and choosing. As I do the puzzle in pencil so I can erase any mistakes, life also allows me to make a mistake but then be able to erase it and wait for the right answer to come to me. In life I have to fill in other blanks before I can solve another one. The blanks of the puzzle are akin to all the different choices I may have in life. After the "easy" ones are written down on the puzzle the hard ones become a little easier. Lots of time in life I know I must get the easy choices out of the way before I leap headlong in trying to solve the much harder ones. When I look back at the completed crossword puzzle I see that I made plenty of mistakes but managed to erase and then correct them. Same thing in life. As I read the clues, then write down(Act on them) I sometimes find I have made "poor" choices at first but hopefully I went back erased them as best I could and corrected them. At the end of the day I can look at my Life's puzzle and see what I have learned. I just find that somewhat intriguing comparing the two. So today as I see life's clues taking me in a good direction I only hope I am smart enough to put down the right answers. I also want to be smart enough to realize that I am going to make mistakes today. And when I do I hope I can correct them quickly. My hope for all of us is that we begin immediately to fill in each blank box with pure unconditional love for everyone including ourselves. May your choices be good ones and may we all learn to correct our mistakes quickly. Be good to yourself and even better to others! I leave you with thoughts of pure love, peace, and understanding.

WHY IT IS SO EASY TO LOVE YOU

Why do we try to make it so hard to love each other? Seems like we believe that everything has to be hard to make it all worthwhile. Let me share with you why I can love all of you and make it easy. First is because I accept you just as you are. You do not have to do anything to make me love you. All I need do is to love. Next, I don't have any expectations on you. I may not always agree with some of the things you do but I can love you anyway. I can't really understand the old I'll love you if you will love me in return...I'll love you when you live a certain way...I'll love you as long as you do what I expect you to do and so on.. To me loving you is easy. Even easier than it is to not love you. If I was to choose not to love you, I'd have to spend energy just justifying the reasons. But just to love you all I need do is to do it! Yep, it really is that simple. So I hope that at this very moment you can and will decide to just love everyone you meet. This life can be hard enough without trying to not love everyone. Believe it or not there are many folks who agree with me, even though it doesn't seem that way. Try it. Just love, and then love some more. What a beautiful experience it shall be when the whole world just loves it all! I leave all of you with thoughts of perfect love, perfect peace, and perfect understanding beginning right now!

ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY & OWNING YOUR CHOICES

I have talked before about choosing the Path that leads back to yourself. Also that this path is the hardest one you will ever undertake. I know that many times in my life I have had to look at myself honestly and to tell you the truth, it hasn't been a real pleasant thing to do. And here is why I say that. We as human beings naturally like to think that we are always right and that if others can't see in the same way as we do then it is their fault and not ours. This being said I always try to look at myself as honestly as I can. But even then I am not always absolutely sure I've been totally honest with myself. And the reason for that is because my ego self wants to assure me that I am doing all the right things in my life. And if something comes along that creates strife in my life my ego then tries to tell me it is someone else's fault or maybe just bad luck. But I still try to learn each day and realize that I must listen to my Higher Self so that the ego doesn't keep me in the dark so to speak. I would like to give you an example of how sometimes our ego selves fool us into thinking we are looking at everything in the right way. Just say there is a married couple or two lovers who have been together for a while and say they truly love each other. They are happy and both of them have  a nice job they love. Then one day one of the two gets an offer from their company they work for. And this offer is a big advancement for them and also pays a lot more money. A chance of a lifetime they seem to think. So this person goes home and tells their mate I have a new job offer with more pay, more perks, and a chance to move up on the company ladder of success. The one thing though is that in order to take this promotion they will have to move across the country and work from there. This means they will have to start over and make a life in a new place, After hearing this the other person says that they are perfectly happy where they are and doesn't wish to move. This creates a problem for them in a big way. Their dreams no longer are running in the same direction. After much thinking the one with the new job offer says that they are not going to miss this opportunity for advancement. They ask the other to please come with me and we will still be together. The other person is adamant and will not make the move. So the one leaving gets angry because they feel the other person is making them choose between their dreams or staying put right where they are. Then the other also gets angry because they don't want to move. And I can see how this can happen. The one choosing to leave tries to make the other one be at fault and blames them for having to choose. But in reality (as I see it) the one leaving has actually made themselves do the choosing and not the other person. After all it was they would had decided to make the move. And that in itself brought about the whole decision making process. But because they did not want to have to choose in the first place their ego self tries to console them by having them believe it was not their fault. The ego self defends every move one wants to make. And when things go awry as they often do the ego does not want to accept as fact that they are responsible for the outcome. This is what I mean when I say it is so difficult to look at ones self and be totally honest. It is so easy for our ego to "spin" things so that we are right. When we can learn to tell the difference between our ego and our Higher self I think we begin to be able to take a more truthful look at ourselves. And that still doesn't make it easy to stay on this path. Even though I try hard to stay on it I still get fooled many times by the ego. I'm sure I will always be a work in progress. But one thing I have learned is that I am okay with my mistakes in life just as long as I don't try to fool myself into thinking I am being totally honest with myself when I am not. This path that leads back to ones self can be so very tricky. But I feel it is worth trip if it helps us to see things in a different way. Because when we do we become less judgmental and more open to others paths. Life sure isn't always what it seems to be. I feel better about myself when I don't have to think I am right all the time. Seems kind of ironic that it has taken me to where I am so much more free when I can admit I am wrong. The ego has to work really hard to convince us we are always right, but it's much easier to be wrong. How's that for a paradox? Hope all of you can see what I am saying so that when you do get on that path leading back to yourself it will be a little easier to be honest with yourself. Once again I must remind you that this is only my "Truth". I share it with you and expect nothing. You may not agree with a word I've said and I can well understand that. After all, I could be totally "wrong". Thank goodness I have finally learned that I do not have to be "right". I leave all of you with thoughts of perfect love, peace, and joy. May your days be filled with love and the nights with restful sleep knowing you have done the best you can today.