What Is Nonduality?

by Remez Sasson -

Nonduality a philosophy, which says that there is just One Eternal Spirit in existence, and that everything in the Universe was created by it and is an inseparable part of it. 

At the same time, nonduality also says that the world is not real, but is an illusion perceived by the mind.

The mind finds it hard to accept the concept of nonduality, because it does not accept that the world is a creation of the senses and is not real.

In order to understand what is nonduality, you have to be in a state beyond words and thinking, and be able to silence the mind. In this silence, you realize the real meaning of non duality.

When you meditate and focus your full attention on your consciousness, rejecting all thoughts, good and bad, you ultimately arrive to the experience of non duality. 

In this state, of being without thoughts, you realize your Oneness with the One Spirit.

The mind, with its thoughts, ideas, beliefs and habits, prevents you from seeing what is beyond it. It is as though it envelops your consciousness and obscures your vision. 

It lets you see the world only through the eyes of the mind, which means that you see the world and everything in it, including yourself, as being separate from the world and from other people. 

Only after removing the veil that the mind creates, you will be able to realize the Oneness of everything, and thereby, realize what nonduality is.

Understanding Nonduality

Imagine that the sky is hidden by clouds of different shapes and sizes. These clouds, constantly move around and change their shapes, and it is only when they disperse and disappear that you can see the blue sky. 

The sky never moves or changes. It is here all the time, but is sometimes, hidden by clouds. The sky is permanent and always here, only the clouds are transitory, coming and going.

Thoughts, people and events constantly come and go, just like the clouds, while the background is the One Eternal and Formless Spirit, which is always here and never changes. 

It is the only reality. 

To be aware of the One Spirit, and understand that everything else is transitory and dependent on it, is to understand what nonduality is.

While dreaming during sleep, you go through all sorts of pleasant and unpleasant experiences. 

In the dream, everything seems so real, but when you wake up you realize that these experiences were just a dream. They were not real, and lasted only while you were dreaming.

Before, during, and after the dream, you are the same person, living in the same conditions and circumstances but in your dreams you go through all kinds of experiences, situations and circumstances, which don’t really exist. 

In this case, there is one constant factor, which is, you, and all else i.e., the activities in the dream, are only illusions.

It is like watching a movie and identifying with the heroes, and then, when it is over, you forget about it. 

It seemed real for a while, but when you stopped watching the illusion disappeared. In all these situations, you – your consciousness – spirit, is the stable factor, and all else just come and go.

You are one with the One Real Spirit, which is Omnipresent, while everything else is transitory, like moving pictures projected on a screen.

What prevents you from realizing and understanding what is nonduality? 

The restless, thinking mind, and the belief in the reality of the ego, of separate individual existence, prevent you from seeing what is beyond them and understanding nonduality. 

What can help you to realize and understand nonduality? 

Looking within you, and searching for the source of your mind and thoughts, where they come from, and discovering who you really are, bring the knowledge and understanding of what nonduality is. 

How is this done? 

Through concentration and meditation, and by learning to silence the mind, a “new” consciousness emerges. 

In this “state”, you know what nonduality means. 

You understand and realize it, not just through the mind, but by raising your consciousness above the mind. 

When the mind is silent, there is Oneness, not “me and the Spirit”, “me and the body”, “me and they”, but just Oneness.

successconsciousness.com

Objective Spirituality

by Robert Kopecky -

What if, with no huge effort on our part other than just a little shift in our point of view, we may dramatically change practically everything for the better? What if we could give ourselves a whole new orientation that would simplify and clarify our experience of life?

SELF-CREATED OBSTACLES

Most of our problems, most of the things we wish we could change for ourselves, are obstacles that we’re usually creating ourselves. We all know that already. 

Problems that pop up again and again and prevent us from reaching what we want or being what we’d like to be. But what might those obstacles look like if they weren’t right in front of us again, blocking our view and dictating our direction? 

What if we saw them from across the room? Or could look down on them, like a bird looking down from above? They probably would look like nothing much because, in truth, they usually are nothing but the constructions of our human minds.

Our human minds are very insistent mechanisms. 

They want us to believe everything they say is true. They want us to believe that we are our thoughts. But we’re not. We’re something else. Otherwise, how could we notice how crazy our thoughts can be? How could we say to ourselves I don’t even want to think about that and then not think about that?

YOU ARE NOT YOUR THOUGHTS

In Hinduism, there is a Sanskrit word sakshi which simply means the witness and it’s a simple idea. 

It’s an idea that you can assume as your own, because it’s about who you really are – apart from the demands of your rambling thoughts. 

Sakshi can suddenly shift your perception – your perspective – because it’s the witness that pays little or no mind to your mind. It applies no labels or judgments to what it observes. 

It’s the simple, pure awareness that looks upon all things with a graceful acceptance, with an objective compassion, as an intuitively analytical eye. Imagine being so cool! Now imagine it a little harder…

I had the mixed (but good) fortune of surviving multiple near-death experiences, and the first was in the classic out-of body motif. I looked down on the auto wreck and witnessed my own body, unconscious and apparently lifeless. 

Naturally, I suggest you avoid this scenario, but it was instructive. When I think about it now, I engage my memory, but I also engage my imagination – and you can do that, too.

ACCESSING THE SIXTH SENSE

Imagine yourself outside of your body, being your pure self, unencumbered by the insistent designs and definitions of your mind. 

From there, you can look down on the limiting definitions your mind imposes on the huge potential of life; the power that’s so easily handed over to your old fears. 

From that point of view as the objective spiritual entity that you actually are, the world looks much simpler, much clearer. We experience what in Latin is called sub specie aeternitatas, the actual eternal nature of our pure self. 

The aspect of being that you may think of as an intuitive sixth sense and as a real, spiritual quality that we all as members of the human species possess.

When you identify yourself at that level, where your inner self and the rest of the universe are unified, the problems and obstacles of your life on Earth carry much less weight and power. 

For example, the guy at work who’s always in your face loses the label antagonist and is observed as simply demonstrating his need to express the demands of his own experience to anyone and everyone – not just to you. In fact, much less seems like it’s happening to you. It’s only happening for you and because it must.

BECOMING A DISEMBODIED SPIRIT

With this simple change in perspective, you immediately gain a tolerant and empathetic consciousness, an acceptance of people as they are - and of the world - as it is. 

You are freed from personal expectations because you see them as simply part of the whole, as an inconsequential expression of the moment. This allows you to bring to each moment, and to the world, what you alone can bring to improve things as they are. 

You no longer have a horse in the race, because you’re watching the race from above with the objectivity of a disembodied spirit. Life becomes more easily acceptable. You can see the shape of every problem, so there’s no problem too large to be overcome.

This condition is a lot like Buddha Mind or Christ Consciousness – in which experiencing a little of either puts you in pretty good company and immediately bestows upon you a whole new definition of success.

A TOURIST ON EARTH

You needn’t be concerned that you may become too detached from your own life or lose the passion you feel you need to inspire yourself. 

Your new point of view allows you to see your attachments and passions in a much truer context so you may engage them more accordingly. 

With the spiritual objectivity of sakshi, the size, shape and even origins of your personal obstacles become more apparent so you can see how they’ve fit into your past and how they can be dealt with more effectively as they pop up now. 

You engage your life as a whole – past, present and future to identify what works, what doesn’t and whom you would like to become.

Imagining that you’re up in the sky witnessing your body and mind (and everyone else’s) actually plants your feet more solidly on the ground. 

It empowers your actions, your effectiveness and your compassionate consciousness to show up for life with a simpler, clearer presence. Any responsibility can be met. Any obstacle can be dealt with – including those potential catastrophes that may lie just ahead of us all.

In Logion 42 of The (Gnostic) Gospel of Thomas, a rather Zen-like Jesus says, 'Be passersby', which could certainly stand in for the compassionate spiritual objectivity I’m suggesting – the slightly detached, fully engaged kind of tourist-on-Earth quality that can change our messy struggles into our empowering purpose.

For me, it may be summed up as a New Year’s resolution: 

I resolve to be a responsible, open-hearted, objective, compassionate witness of – and entirely engaged participant in – the remarkable, indescribable magic of life on this beautiful Earth. 

"To him who holds in his hands the Great Image (of the invisible Tao), the whole world repairs." --Tao te Ching, 35

About Author: Robert Kopecky is an author and artist whose essays and stories can be found at his blog, Art, Faith, and the Koko Lion or on BeliefNet, The Mindful Word, Soul Life Times and other places around the web. His book, How to Survive Life (and Death), can be found on Amazon and at all major bookstores – but remember to support your local bookstores, too! Connect with Robert on Twitter and Facebook.

gaiamtv.com

The Interspiritual Revolution

by Rory McEntee and Adam Bucko -

“We must all achieve our identity on the basis of a radical authenticity… [for] it is only in the real world of the person – neither singular nor plural – that the crucial factors influencing the course of the universe are at work.”  – Raimundo Panikkar, “The Silence of God,” Introduction p. xviii

RE-ENVISIONING SPIRITUALITY

There can be little doubt that traditional religious frameworks are no longer speaking to new generations as they have in the past, especially in the West. 

In a recent article in the LA Times, Philip Clayton, Dean of Faculty at Claremont School of Theology, writes that the fastest growing religious group in the United States is “spiritual but not religious,” containing a shocking 75 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29.

Clayton argues that young people are not necessarily rejecting a sense of God, rather they feel that religious organizations are too concerned with money and power, too focused on rules and too involved in the structures of the political status quo.

This is why the Interspiritual Revolution is so important. 

In a recent book of magnificent scope, “The Coming Interspiritual Age” (Namaste Publishing 2013), Dr. Kurt Johnson, a former Anglican monk and evolutionary biologist, together with David Robert Ord, trace the history of the interspiritual movement from no less than the Big Bang. 

They explore this unfolding extensively from an integral and evolutionary perspective, bringing together the world’s religious traditions, developmental history and current scientific understandings of anthropology, human cognitive development, brain/mind and scientific consciousness studies.

They make a powerful argument for seeing the history of the world’s spiritual and religious traditions as one movement, all contributing to the maturation of our species.

Mystical Spirituality

Brother Wayne Teasdale, a lay Catholic monk who was ordained as a Christian sannyassi (a monk in the Hindu tradition), coined the term interspirituality in his book “The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s Religions” (New World Library, 1999). In it, Brother Wayne said:

"The religion of humankind can be said to be spirituality itself, because mystical spirituality is the origin of all the religions. If this is so, and I believe it is, we might say that interspirituality — the sharing of ultimate experiences across traditions — is the religion of the third millennium. Interspirituality is the foundation that can prepare the way for a planet-wide enlightened culture..."

We believe this understanding of Interspirituality, as a reciprocal sharing of realizations and contemplative gifts, in which each person’s insights help to affirm, deepen, and direct the other’s journey, is a framework that can be embraced by a new generation of spiritually hungry youth, while also allowing for inter-generational bridges to be built between elders, wisdom traditions and the youth. 

We call this process spiritual democracy, putting aside our egos and relating to each other in a way in which we can be surprised by the Divine, through which wisdom can come through everyone participating and God emerges as the “between” between friends. 

Interspirituality leads us to the God that is emerging among us, while naturally allowing us to touch the God within and beyond.

Willing to Quest

The truth is there is a revolution happening among us. People are waking up to the emptiness of their consumer-driven and materialistic worlds, and are beginning to re-evaluate what matters. 

The Occupy movement, the Arab Spring, the recent protests in India over the rape and treatment of women – these are but early manifestations of something deeper emerging in our collective Soul. 

Young people are no longer interested in living in a world that doesn’t feel like their soul’s home, and they are willing to question the way things have been done in the past.

It is to this questioning, this questing, that we believe Interspirituality has so much to offer, and can speak to the younger generation in a way that nothing else can.

In order for interspirituality to play this potent role, however, we must be careful in how we come to understand it, what it means and what it has to offer. There is a subtle danger in allowing interspirituality to be defined by an amorphous “oneness.” 

An overemphasis on this can lead to an assumption that the varying experiences of “oneness” are the same (leaving aside for now the sticky question of whether or not this is actually the case), while at the same time implying, perhaps even unconsciously, that an experience of “oneness” is needed for a seat at the Interspiritual table. 

While the unity of the human race must be championed tirelessly by Interspirituality, we must also leave ample room for the messy complexity, the blood and marrow, that diversity demands. 

We explore the deeper contemplative dimension of this interspiritual movement in our manifesto, “New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Life in the 21st Century,” as well as the sacred activist side in “Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation” (forthcoming, North Atlantic Books, Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox).

We must also acknowledge different ways of being interspiritual. 

One may have a solid grounding in one tradition, and from this foundational point reach out to experience and understand the wisdom of other traditions.

This has been the way of many of the founders of the Interspiritual movement, such as Father Bede Griffiths and Brother Wayne Teasdale. One may also go the way of “multiple belonging” by fully immersing oneself in multiple traditions, such as Lex Hixon, also known as Shaykh Nur al-Jerrahi, did. 

This way is eloquently described by Matthew Wright, an Episcopal priest and practicing dervish, in “Reshaping Religion: Interspirituality and Multiple Religious Belonging.” 

There is yet a third way, in which one’s primary path is one’s inner guidance, what George Fox, founder of the Quakers, called one’s “inner teacher,” and what Christians have often referred to as the “guidance of the Holy Spirit.” 

Its emphasis lies on the relationship aspect of the Ultimate Mystery. 

This way may not lead to being embedded in a particular wisdom tradition (without eliminating this possibility), but instead to taking on, in a mature and disciplined way, differing teachers, practices and service roles throughout one’s lifetime, under the guidance of the Spirit.

Following One's Own Inner Light

Too often this third way has been described as being selfish, flaky, a spiritual “Esperanto,” or arising out of an inability to commit. In fact of matter, it is all about commitment. 

It is about fidelity to one’s own path, to the inner impulse that arises within us, and the courage to commit to it with all of one’s being, allowing ourselves the freedom of movement that it demands. 

It shifts us from a reliance on gurus, dogmas and institutions to following one’s own inner light.

It is not freedom for the sake of freedom, it has a purpose. 

It is the newest and yet most ancient way, as it is the origin of all the world’s wisdom traditions.

Our traditions and elders must come to recognize this impulse in the youth, not as a selfish reliance on one’s “self,” but as nothing less than the breath of the Holy Spirit, opening up possibilities for new structures and understandings to emerge. 

To fail to do so we fear is to relegate themselves to the dustbin of history, making the human race poorer from the failure to pass on the very real wisdom their traditions have safeguarded and passed down for centuries.

Yet, it is unequivocal that a purely subjective guidance tends to be dangerous, as all authentic traditions have attested to. 

This is why we need communities where we can help each other to discern what is authentic and facilitate the immersion into spirit. 

This is why we need our spiritual elders and we need our wisdom traditions to give us guidance, but we also need a new way to pass down their accumulated wisdom.

Entering into Interspirituality

Interspirituality is about entering into a divine milieu, where... 

“things are transfigured… but in this incandescence they retain – this is not strong enough, they exalt – all that is most specific in their attributes” (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Divine Milieu).

It is about the uniqueness of the human race itself, and for this to ultimately be discovered in full it needs each of our individual experiences of Life at its lived depths and revelations. It is then through the sharing of these gifts that a new fullness, a new understanding, can emerge. 

What is true for us individually is true for our religious traditions as well. Each religion, we believe, offers a unique way into the Ultimate Mystery and unique fruits, as does each individual journey. 

We are ready to move into a unity that is full, that welcomes all textures, where the Buddha’s equanimity complements Christ’s radical love in action, and where the Hebrew prophetic outrage can be merged with the incarnate spirituality of the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and the timeless revelations of the Hindu sages.

For it is here, among us, that the Kingdom of Heaven which Jesus spoke of so intimately lies, waiting to be discovered through our intimacy with one another. 

It is here that our unity as a human race lies, and Interspirituality is dedicated to its discovery. 

This movement will lead to new structures, new narratives and new forms that live in communities which are cells of a new world; cells connected in networks of friendships, and one day this emerging web of contemplative being and acting will become a center for all of life, not because someone imposes it or lobbies for it, but because Life attracts more life.

This is the revolution, the Interspiritual Revolution. Come, join us…

To explore the Interspiritual Movement please see the extensive Interspiritual Ezine

Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation

Interspiritual Ezine

new-monastics.com
adambucko.com

upliftconnect.com

Are You 'Spiritual But Not Religious'?

by  Lissa Rankin MD -

When I talk to some people about spirituality, they commonly respond with, “Oh, but I’m not religious,” to which I respond, “Yeah, me neither.” 

Then they look a bit puzzled. The way I see it, every religion is some human being’s interpretation of spiritual principles and while there’s a lot of overlap in the teachings of all religions that probably points to some spiritual truth, I find myself resisting any dogma that says that one way is “The Way” and everything else is hogwash.

Ages ago, I wrote about my “Grab Bag Religion”. Some critique such an approach to spirituality, arguing that those who consider themselves “spiritual but not religious” lack the discipline that comes from focus on one religious pathway. 

Others say that the California-style “It’s all good” approach to spirituality fails to offer clear morals and strict values. This may be a valid criticism. Certainly spiritual practice can deepen one’s spiritual journey and living a life of integrity tends to accompany spiritual commitment.

I certainly respect those who have found a religious discipline that feels aligned with their truth but after investigating many religious paths, none felt truly authentic to my soul.

Though Buddhism most closely resonates with me and though I’m attracted to the yogic tradition, I still say that Jesus is my favorite. And yet, I don’t consider myself a Buddhist or a committed yogini or a Christian.  

I tend to resonate with the Buddhist teachings of non-dualism, especially the way Adyashanti teaches, but I’m also attracted to the Divine Feminine goddess worship of the yogic tradition, especially the way Sera Beak expresses it. 

I also love the Sufi mystic poets like Rumi and Hafiz. Yet, no deity speaks to my heart more than Jesus, who strikes me as perhaps the most loving being to have ever walked the earth in human form

If you mix all those together, you get a flavor of the cocktail of my spiritual inklings. But yours might taste quite different, and I think that’s perfectly okay.

Defining “Spiritual But Not Religious”

If you, like me, consider yourself “spiritual but not religious,” what does that even mean?

Christine Hassler, my soul sister and author of Expectation Hangover, recently wrote:

Spirituality is one’s capacity to be guided. It is not about how much we mediate. Or how often we go to church. Or how many yoga poses or Sanskrit words we know. Or how much time we spend praying. Or how many Om pieces of jewelry we have. Spirituality is really about how much we get out of our own way and allow ourselves to be guided by God. 

That means . . . 

Letting go of expectations. 

Releasing attachments to the way we think things should be 

Quieting the voice of our ego so we can hear the voice of inner wisdom. 

Making changes that maybe scary and facing uncertainty with faith.  

Being of service to others that Spirit places in our lives in often unexpected ways. 

I thought that was pretty much the best definition of “spiritual but not religious” that I had ever heard. I might add that spirituality is a commitment to walking the spiritual path from the head to the heart. 

It’s a choice to free yourself from letting your ego take the lead in your life so you can surrender your ego’s attachments and instead, let your soul take the wheel. It’s the decision to choose love over fear — to withhold judgment of yourself or others, to stop labeling everything as “right” or “wrong,” to transition from a black and white “dualistic” world to a non-dual perspective that is comfortable with paradox. 

It’s the willingness to make your life an offering to the Divine in whatever form you resonate with a Higher Power, whether it’s God or some other deity or just the Divine within yourself (which I call “Your Inner Pilot Light“). 

It’s your commitment to learning to receive, interpret and discern spiritual guidance, mixed with the courage to actually act upon this guidance, even when it directs you away from what your ego wants.

(If you’re not sure how to receive this guidance, listen to this free teleclass I recorded with Rachel Naomi Remen —  10 Ways Your Soul Guides Your In Daily Life.)

When you choose to live by these principles and your prayer becomes “Make me a vessel for Divine love in the world,” you are definitely on the spiritual path, whether or not you consider yourself religious. 

When you realize that orchestrating your life around the ego’s grasping desires and attachments fails to truly fulfill you, you free yourself from the prison of the hungry ghost of the ego, which never gets fulfilled, no matter how many goals you achieve or how much money you earn or how much love or sex you attract. 

Once you stop letting fear rule your life, you become free. The reward from the challenges of the spiritual path is inner peace — true lasting relief from human suffering, regardless of the chaos happening around you. And that makes it all worth it. Really.

As an added side effect, living this way is medicine not just for the soul but for the body. As I described in Mind Over Medicine and as I dig deeper into in my upcoming book The Fear Cure, when you’re no longer living in a state of constant fear, anxiety, and stress, the nervous system rests in the relaxation response and the body naturally begins to heal.

The Spiritual Path

Making a commitment to the spiritual path is no small task, and many who consider themselves “religious” are not on the spiritual path at all (though many are). 

Just because someone is faithful to religious rules doesn’t mean they’re committed to freeing themselves from the prison of fear and an ego-driven life. Sometimes, their egos are just grasping to the rules of their religion as a way to structure their egoic world view and use it as an opportunity to judge those who don’t share their world view. 

This isn’t meant to judge those who are committed to a particular religion. Many religious people are definitely on the spiritual path. But the two don’t always go together.

In my opinion, anyone who kills others in the name of religion or judges those who choose to have abortions or bans homosexuals from their spiritual community is not truly walking the spiritual path (no judgment, of course). 

When religion becomes an excuse to practice fear, hatred and judgment, it takes us away from what I consider true spirituality, which is the opportunity to practice radical love, compassion, forgiveness, and surrender to Divine Will, even when you’re asked to open your heart to those you find most challenging to love.

Love Without Conditions

When I wrote a controversial blog post right after Osama bin Laden was killed (you can read it on owningpink.com  here), I was trying to shine a light  on  the judgment that is so common in our fear and judgment-based culture. 

We judge terrorists because they’re “bad people” and we dance in the streets when we kill them. But weren’t we upset with the terrorists because they were judging us for not being Muslim enough? How is countering judgment with judgment spiritual?

Yet, we cling to our judgment with a fierce righteousness we seem reluctant to release, almost as if we think our judgment protects us. Many forget that our ultimate protection lies in living lives committed to the practice of love. 

This doesn’t mean we condone the behavior of terrorists. But when Osama bin Laden was killed, a human being lost his life. His family may have been grieving his loss. And it made me feel a bit sick to see us celebrating when a human life had been taken.

I can only hope that as we experience the shift in human consciousness that is underway, we will love more and judge less as we remember that we are all connected — all of us, even the Osama bin Laden’s of the world.

Releasing Judgment

I’m feeling inspired to write more about what it means to release judgment and to replace judgment with compassionate discernment. So stay tuned. I have a lot more to say about this and will share more thoughts next week. Until then, share your thoughts about your own spiritual path.

Are you religious? Spiritual but not religious? Not into spirituality at all?

Are you willing to try to withhold judgment of others?

Can you practice radical forgiveness while setting appropriate boundaries and using discernment to keep you and your loved ones safe?

Lissa Rankin, MD, is a mind-body medicine physician, founder of the Whole Health Medicine Institute training program for physicians and health care providers, and the New York Times bestselling author of “Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof That You Can Heal Yourself”. She is on a grass roots mission to heal health care, while empowering you to heal yourself.

lissarankin.com

wakeup-world.com

Spiritual Momentum

by James Clair Lewis -

The Principles of Metaphysics operate just as reliably, as the laws of physics and it makes no difference whether you are aware of them or not, for them to be in full effect. 

For example, you do not have to know about the law of conservation of angular momentum for it to totally change your life forever.

All you have to do, is to slam on your brakes while driving over a patch of ice on the road, to go skidding and spinning all over the place. Please stick to playing pool on a table. Don't do it on a road, because it can be a very nasty break.

A big mistake people often make when studying Metaphysics is to treat these concepts as mere ideas, things to contemplate and discuss with your friends.

Now that is all well and good, but guess what happens when you apply these principles to the ways you go about thinking, and acting? Yes, that's right. They actually work. 

Try them out and see what happens for yourself.

The patterns of your thinking and the ways that you go about doing things are great determiners for the situations that you will be dealing with.

If you are trying to do something and it isn't working, perhaps you need to examine your attitudes and your methods of operation.

If you approach a project with the inner notion that you will fail, you most certainly will.

You have to take positive physical action towards a goal, before it can become something that happens.

This is known as "completing the circuit". 

You might try to do something, and it fails. Most likely, this is the Universe's way of telling you, that you didn't go about it in the right way, that there was something wrong in your attitudes, methods or motivations.

Listen to what the Universe tells you.

To make something happen, you don't merely wish for it. Wishing is static activity which leads nowhere.

Begin with your Inspiration and then imagine the steps it would take to create it.

Next start on the preparations, gathering the things you will need together.

After that comes the first real step. This step may appear small but it is a very big one, because this is the step that sets things in motion.

With each step afterwards, the project gains momentum. The sustained momentum of many small steps, gathers strength, which moves the Inspiration into Manifestation.

That's how it works with a small personal project but large projects involving many people, work the same way. The only difference is the scale of the activity and the amount of momentum needed to get the ball rolling.

Once the ball gets rolling on a large project, the momentum can become very great. 

Indeed, nothing can stop it.

With small personal projects it is the faith in yourself and in your ability to figure out how to make the project happen that is the Key thing which carries it through to completion because without that faith, there can be no sustained effort to build the momentum.

With large projects it is the same, except that here we must have faith in each other.

Many people have heard great ideas and agreed that they were great ideas but then they said that nobody would go along with them. Actually, millions of people have heard these same great ideas, agreed with them and then said that nobody would go along with it.

They lacked faith in themselves and they lacked faith in all of the other people, who also liked the same great idea and who also said that nobody would go along with it.

Do you see right here why these great ideas haven't happened yet?

We will change the world into a paradise soon after we decide that that is what we want and realize that we can do it. 

A great deal of fear needs to be overcome, because fear and faith do not mix.

As Jimi Hendrix said,

"When the Power of Love overcomes the Love of Power, then we will have Peace." 

Signs of this already beginning to happen are there for anyone who cares to look. People all over the world are beginning to demand Peace.

Humanity is now in the process of growing up from our barbaric past. The corrupt and greedy are beginning to lose their grip on the things which they have stolen from all of the rest of us. They know that their time on Earth is coming to an end. They have fear and good reason for it.

Now is the time to begin the preparations for the world we truly deserve to live in. 

We have much to do in order to re-establish the Balance of Nature.

We need to adapt our technologies for sustainability in harmony with the environment. We need to restructure our economies, so that everyone profits from their own labors and poverty is eliminated forever.

The work before us is enormous and will not be accomplished overnight but it is not something that we cannot do.

We have within us the power to achieve every great and noble thing that we can imagine.

It begins here. It begins now.

It begins with you, because you have just realized that this is possible. 

Come join with the rest of us. We need you. I hear the Horn sounding from Heaven. We've got some work to do.

jamesclairlewis.com

thegaiandragon.blogspot.com

Spiritual Enlightenment

by Lynn Claridge -

The first step to attain higher levels of spirituality is through Spiritual Enlightenment, a process of absorbing knowledge and wisdom without Judgment.

Are you able to tell me what enlightenment means? If not let me explain. 

When I put this question to my clients, they give me a list of things, not just material items but many other things that include love, family and peace. In all the cases, there is something to attain. 

Let me tell you that there is nothing to attain because you already have it, however, there is stuff to discard. 

Once you do this, it leaves you in an enlightened state and it is in this state that you will find happiness.

There are many reasons to seek enlightenment. 

Enlightenment is an ideal state of being, that you achieve via an ongoing process. It is a process of allowing the right amount of consciousness to shine through your physical being. 

Let me explain it another way. When you are enlightened, you liberate yourself from the physical world. This means you have the ability to witness your thought process.

Your thoughts create your future and physical reality. 

You currently identify with your thoughts, you live your life inside your thought process, and you should realize your thoughts are separate from you. 

The vast major of your thinking is done without you being aware of it. When you are enlightened, you free yourself from being swept up in your thinking process, therefore, you liberate yourself from any thought that is not your choice.

Did you know you currently suffer every time you wrestle with your emotions, argue about something or agonize over a decision? Sometimes this can be short lived and mild, however, at other times, it is extremely painful and remains with you for a long time. 

When you are free from suffering, you are free and have more choices.

Desire means you are unsatisfied and in this state, your wants are driven by your emotions. 

Without desire you can still have, however, your wants are closer to preference. When you experience this, you will understand freedom from the material world. This does not mean you cannot have something you want; it just means you are unaffected if you do not get it.

The “truth” is the way that the world really is. 

Being able to see the “truth” means you see beyond the physical side of others. You see who you really are. It means you can read between the lines and you hear what others are saying.

Some people know the process of looking for spiritual enlightenment as “the search for the holy grail” however, this is not so, it is achieved by removing the obstacles. These obstacles are inside you, they are created by your mind.

Have you noticed how I have said nothing about religion, have you also noticed how I have not mentioned morals and have you noticed how I have not told you what you can or cannot do. Good. 

Now I will tell you how enlightenment really helps in everyday life.

To get into this state means you can transmit energy in the form of ideas and words.

What does it mean to experience Spiritual Enlightenment?

• Enlightenment is a continuous realization that you are an eternal being. 

• It comes from a deeper knowing that you are beyond body and behind the mind. 

• It is celebrating every moment of the day, with the feeling of being connected to the universe, as if it is a living, breathing conscious, which loves you unconditionally. 

• It is surrendering to the truth everywhere you are.

Experience Your True Self

So here is, you answer, spiritual enlightenment is a process of peeling back the many layers of your ego to experience your true self. 

It is a process of opening up to your inner most being. Reaching towards the center of you, true enlightenment is the very essence of your being it is where your true spiritual knowledge resides.

mysticalempowerment.com

Principles of Self-Realization

by Don Turner -

We are more than our bodies, ego or personality. Inwardly we are eternal spiritual beings that are already, on its own level, perfect and one with God.

We are therefore multilevel beings, with each layer consisting of a conglomeration of attitudes, beliefs and feelings. The aim of Self-realization is to clear the outer layers so that one's inner or higher Self may manifest and express itself without distortion.

Everything real already exists within. This inner reality is not affected by what we do.

Some universal qualities or characteristics of one's inner Self/spirit are: love, peace, joy, light, power, will, beauty, energy, purpose, knowing, infinity, creation, movement, unity and timelessness.

Realizing one's Self requires that we stop blocking it and surrender to the promptings of the spirit and the longings of the heart that opens to and allows an experience of these impulses -- love, joy, peace, light, etc.

Realizing one's Self entails letting go: 

• of fears; 
• of assumptions of separation, 
• lack and special needs; 
• of negative judgments and preconceptions; 
• of guilt, 
• self-doubt and 
• pride.

Our minds are part of One Whole Mind that is interwoven with all creation. However, because we hold a perception of separation and fragmentation we therefore experience things this way.

As we change our minds, our world and experience will also change because what we inwardly hold to (not just on a conscious level), we will create and experience in our lives. Our experience in the world allows us to recognize what we assume to be real.

Creating our reality begins with our choice in how we perceive our experience. The aspect that we focus on and identify with is accentuated.

Everything that we seem to experience outside of ourselves in the world is really contained within the Self. (Negativity has no substantial reality but rather is a denial of spiritual reality.)

What we are unconscious of in ourselves we will experience as projections on to others and events happening to us that seem out of our control or will.

What we judge against in others, we judge against in ourselves. Conversely, what we forgive and accept in others we forgive in ourselves.

Pain and suffering come from the instinctive tendency for the ego to become attached to and identified with things that it believes we need and are.

Choosing values and beliefs which are out of accord with the truth of our Self entails pain and suffering. Integrating the Self's qualities and purposes releases the distortion causing the pain.

Every pain therefore contains some gift if it is utilized-- some awareness, Self-knowledge and realization.

Choosing integrity and authenticity means ultimately bringing our personality into alignment with our inner Self so that we may become outwardly what we already are spiritually.

Love and sexual attraction outwardly reflects the inner process of becoming whole, by integrating the ego with the inner Self. What we seek to unite with in another is our Self.

Therefore, the purpose of relationship is not to get but to share and gain awareness -- by expressing ourselves we realize who we really are and fulfill the intention of the Self.

Desire, which becomes attached to sense objects, ultimately derives from and can be redirected to the urge to reunite consciously with one's source or inner being.

Love acknowledges the essential unity of all life and the urge to realize this oneness.

Violence in the world is an expression of negativity associated with Self denial.

Fear results from identifying with the body and not understanding the nature of reality -- there is ultimately nothing to fear.

It is not the ego that becomes self-realized, rather identification with the ego is released as we live from a deeper place of wholeness and affirmation.

soullifecenter.org