Tag: inner self

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A plan to read is a plan to succeed

Photo by Brittney Weng on Unsplash

Reading is empowerment of a soul

In an earlier session, we learned that reading is a means of empowerment which provides us with countless ideas to develop a successful attitude and a successful mind. I wonder how many readers sat down and created a plan and then acted upon their plan.

Buy a book…don’t borrow one or expect one for free

To the ones who bought their books and read them – congratulations, you must have experienced a new world of ideas that gave you strength, wisdom, and motivation to change your inner and ultimately, your outer world. How can you possible put a price upon what you gain from the written word? Since I strongly believe (as well as others) that reading is a critical step to success, here’s yet another opportunity for me to climb back onto the soap box and write about the virtues of reading. 

Emotions lead to a sacred connection

The physical act of reading connects our inner self with our outer self and as a result, wondrous things manifest in this meeting between the two. As our eyes pour over the written text, our brain processes what we see and transfers those written words into emotions. We know that emotions are our sacred connection between the Source and our Self which guide creation in our lives. As such, these deep felt emotions are the impetus to change our thoughts and we then change our behaviors which then change our results.

Support your favorite author while you invest in your Self at the same time

I strongly encourage you to go out and buy the books written by your favorite authors rather than borrow them from a friend. Before you close your mind to this suggestion, consider what you are conveying to the universe when you borrow rather than buy that self-help book or novel. If you do not invest in your Self with your money, there is the perception that you are unable to do so. Hence, this is poverty thinking, thoughts of want, lack, and scarcity surround your decision and you can only receive more back of the same from our benevolent Creator. These thoughts are disempowering. 

Does borrowing a book lead to empowerment or entitlement?

Now, think about the opposite for a moment. What is the difference between borrowing and buying that printed marvel? When you use your money to buy the books that will change your life, you do so with thoughts of abundance, joy, and gratitude which can only result in returning the same back into your life. These thoughts are empowering.

Buying a book is a WIN WIN situation

And as you invest in your future, you are providing compensation for the writer who wrote their ideas and experiences down to help you and others to have a better life. In this case, both win. And let’s not forget the physical presence of a hundred or a thousand books on your book shelve. You are quite literally surrounded by wisdom and experience that you cannot ever experience in many lives and they are all at your very fingertips.

Books shape our future and our friends

In the end, it is the people we meet and the books we read that shape our future. When we embrace the written word we receive lasting changes which create a new life of wonder and excitement. So, don’t wait to create, create your plan to read now.

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Let life take you to where you should be taken to.

8. Do not swim – float.

(Osho’s Eighth New Commandment)

Offer no resistance 

If we are unexpectedly thrown into the water, our natural reaction is to swim, to make a concerted effort to escape our present situation, an unpleasant present so to speak. We are conditioned to save our self, and the fundamental need to survive and escape from harm’s way is the same when in the water, on the land, or in the air. However, to experience life to the fullest: we need to let the water carry us to where we should be without any effort or resistance on our part; let the land carry us to where we should be without effort or resistance on our part; let the air carry us to where we should be without effort or resistance on our part.

header18A metaphor for your life 

In this post, the words and ideas are not about splashing in the waves of the ocean, frolicking around the streets of the land, or drifting along on the currents of the air…the reference to water, land, and air is intended as metaphors for and about your life. And since it is about life, we should always consider what plane of existence we want to live on; surely, it must be without question to seek a higher plane of life, a higher level of consciousness, and a higher vision of self…the one that was, is, and will be you. Still, this is  lost to your self if you and you alone let it happen.

Spend time alone

In order to float effortlessly upon the sea of life, you must spend time alone; time without all of the distractions we face in this modern era…our mobiles, Internet, televisions, and newspapers. For it is when you are truly alone that you silence the white noise that causes you to be distracted from the real you, the truthful you, the super-conscious you. As you separate yourself from the distractions, you feel the soothing waves upon your soul, the sweet smells  upon your senses, the warm breezes upon your body, drifting with an innate purpose to the destination that is meant to be your end destination.

When you are alone, it should be the greatest of joys; the greatest of thrills; the greatest of opportunities to reflect upon what you are, where you are, and who you want to become.  As you reflect upon your life, it is soon apparent that you can be free in every sense of the word if you focus upon freedom; as you release any chains that encumber your spiritual transformation to the real you, you feel the miracle that is you…the beating of your heart, the breathing of your lungs, the echoing of your thoughts.

Let the tide take you to where it wants you to be 

As you are thrown into the water of life, let it take you to where it knows that you should be taken. And as you swirl around this way and that, do so without resistance, without a fight, without a preconceived idea of where you should be brought to…just let it happen. As you let it happen, you soon feel the euphoric feeling of freedom; you are free of society, free from having to swim to survive, free to let the tide take you where you should be taken without any interference on your part, without any ego on your part, and without any agenda on your part.

Seekers need not seek

We are too often caught-up in seeking that which we want, however, when we do this we often close our eyes, ears, and minds to what our inner being is saying to and for us.  With closed eyes, ears, and minds we believe that we know the answer, and that answer appears to us as an illusion from the materialistic world, the unreal world, the world of untruths. As we run towards our goals, we run away from our self. We run an untrue race to nowhere. We run to a void not out of a void.

In life, the seeker cannot run away from self; furthermore, the seeker also runs within self…as such, the outer world of the seeker appears frantic, anxious, fearful; and the inner world is a mirror image of the outer world. Thus, a seeker’s inner world is frantic, anxious, and fearful. Will this lead to a happy life, a life of freedom, a life of enlightenment?

Non-seekers, by contrast, have no need or desire to run from self. They thrive on being the one true self, the self that is innate, created by the Source. As such, the outer world of the non-seeker is one of peace, harmony, and joy and their inner world is a mirror image of the outer world. Thus, a non-seeker’s inner world is one of peace, harmony, and joy. Will this lead to a fulfilled and meaningful life?

Live the journey without effort

The key is to let life take you where you ought to be taken, and as you drift along with the current and not against the current – when you go against what most of us do when thrown into the water called life – you feel an inner transformation of peacefulness, happiness, and tranquility….you have arrived at where you should be without making an effort to get there.  Be grateful that your innate wisdom has usurped the worldly non-wisdom; the truth has usurped the illusion of non-truth, and the divine has usurped the profane. The destination that always was, is, and will be your final one.

 

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Moses, Osho and the New Ten Commandments

According to the Book of Exodus in the Bible, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt to escape persecution at the hands of the Pharaoh, Ramses. Having escaped evil, they set up their camp at the base of Mount Sinai. Moses ascended the sacred mountain and returned with two stone tablets that listed the Ten Commandments (Thou shall not murder; Thou shall not steal). These were laws to help guide Moses’ people to lead a ‘good’ life.

Now, let’s move ahead in time where we find the New Ten Commandments penned by  Osho (December. 11, 1931 – January 19, 1990), an Indian mystic, guru, writer, and spiritual teacher. Even all these years after his death, his works are followed by a large number of readers for their wonderful messages. Recently, I read Osho’s words on an ancient theme of how to live a ‘good’ life in modern times. Over the next few posts, I’ll include my ideas about the Ten New Laws of Life.

1. Obey no orders except those within.

(Osho’s First New Commandment)

Our intuition is our most valued gift 

stairwayOur inner self, or our intuition is a direct link to our Creator, and as such the ideas we receive from our inner being must be accepted as the truth, the one and only truth in our present physical manifestation. Since there can be only one truth, and that truth comes from within, we should not listen to what comes from without. It is our inner world, the unseen world of feelings and intuition that manifests a life of joy and plenty. However, many shun the unseen only for the seen as a pathway to happiness and success in life. That’s myopic.

Intuition is irrational, not logical 

Those who only believe what they see, which in turn is something that they can measure, identify, and therefore analyze with scientific accuracy have a difficult time in believing that intuition exists. This is not a reason to disbelieve. However, as Osho (2001) points out, “Intuition cannot be explained scientifically because the very phenomenon is unscientific. The very phenomenon of intuition is irrational.” We cannot see gravity…but it exists for our benefit. We must experience a leap of faith – because it cannot be measured is not a valid reason to think that it does not or cannot exist.

We cannot intellectualize intuition 

Our problem is that we feel intuition and then attempt to intellectualize it, to fill the gap between what we feel and what we cannot see, touch, or smell. Still, the higher can subsume the lower, but the lower cannot subsume the lower, and so it is with intuition…it can subsume intellect but intellect cannot subsume it. When we obey what is without and not within, we cannot reach our full potential in life, it is so because our present is not our future…our future is malleable if we follow what we know is the truth. Ultimately, if we obey what comes from within,  and not what comes from without, we have mastered the first of the new Laws of Life.

Osho (2001). Intuition: Knowing beyond logic. New York: St. Martin’s