Some of you recently heard me say this in a class, but today it just seems that it needs to be widely broadcasted. Do this, and it will help set you on a more pleasant experience of life. Ready? Here it is:
“SMILE MORE, THINK LESS”
Many Blessings To All…
LOTD
Well, if you were notified of a previous post that now is missing, there is a perfectly logical reason…I deleted it.
A few folks read it before I canned it, and for those few, consider it an aberration…a little case of too much information, (and maybe too much Vodka 
. Some things just aren’t ready for “prime-time.” But this one you can keep fresh in your mind. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!
Many Blessings To All…
LOTD
Here is a wonderful quote from Thomas Dreier:
“The life each if us lives is the life within the limits of our own thinking. To have life more abundant, we must think in limitless terms of abundance.”
There isn’t much to add to this. Whether you believe it to be so, or don’t believe it, you’re witnessing the results, and proving the veracity of the principal, every day of your life. The key to this timeless truth is consistency.
Thinking in terms of limitless abundance today and tomorrow, then spending the next two days thinking that nothing will ever go your way, is a recipe for spotty, (or no), results. This type of thinking and belief has to be practiced every day in order for it to bear fruit. It is similar to pushing a broke-down car.
At first, it can be every difficult to get it moving, but once you do, you will discover that it requires a lesser-and-lesser amount of “push” to keep it going and, (in the case of abundant thinking, anyway), you will soon reach a downgrade and you can just let it go. The momentum that you have created, coupled with the opportunities that the Infinite will graciously provide in response to your faith and effort, (the downhill stretch), will rapidly have you sailing into the abundance that you are seeking.
You have absolutely nothing to lose by putting this way of thinking into practice, and a great deal to gain. Don’t allow the way that you think be a limit to your abundance. It doesn’t cost a penny to enact this practice, and if you stick with it, it will prove its effectiveness in your life. Why wait?
Many Blessings To All…
LOTD
Image via Wikipedia
Every day you hit the ground running…and yet it can often seem that nothing is happening.
Don’t be fooled.
If you are doing the best that you know how to do to advance yourself towards your goals, (be they material, or spiritual, or both), and you maintain your faith, you can be absolutely certain that your day-to-day “hammering” is doing its work. I am reminded of a quote from Mordecai Richler, who wrote:
“When nothing seems to help, I go look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”
What it looks like on the outside, physical world is not always an indication of what is taking place in the unseen world, where energies beyond your comprehension are busily putting pieces in place in response to your actions and beliefs.
With that in mind, keep your blueprint – your vision of your future – first and foremost in your mind. Couple this with strong faith and the patience born from KNOWING that every day is delivering a necessary blow, and you will soon see your rock split open and your dreams spilling into your lap.
Always bear in mind what the late Mr. Richler noted: it’s not the final blow that breaks the rock, it’s all the ones that preceded it – the very blows that appeared to be doing nothing. Keep the faith, and let your hammer ring!
Many Blessings To All…
LOTD
It was a beautiful, powerful scene.
Frodo Baggins, the hero of the The Lord of The Rings, looking back at his friends…those who had walked through the fires with him…after he had boarded the ship that would take him to his blissful rest…with a smile of exquisite peace and relief.
How much this scene calls to me I cannot even begin to express.
I have been the warrior. I have faced and dealt death, but there are no comrades to look back upon. Why? Secrets.
So many secrets. Secrets about which I signed papers and swore that I would never divulge. And I haven’t…and never will. Such is integrity. But it is also very lonely.
Veteran’s Day. I hate it. I want no part of it, because my service doesn’t “fit” the mold. I cannot point to Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Vietnam, and say “this is what I did,” because what I did was during the “Cold War;” nameless places that, though unknown, laid the groundwork for the success that we have had in those wars.
I cannot tell my wife…I cannot tell my therapist…I cannot tell ANYONE. That was the agreement, and I will not violate that trust. But, as I said, it is very lonely.
Is it ego that desires to be known and “belong.?” Of course it is. Yet, in what is a great irony, I am a spiritual powerhouse that is fully aware of the meaningless of my ego’s selfish desires.
Perhaps this is what makes a “sage;” being able to straddle both worlds at the same time…to acknowledge the “lower” while embracing the “higher.”
This blog entry has no purpose…just opening a window to get some air. In the end, I WILL look back with a blissful smile, even if there is no one there to see it. I have given all that I have – what more is there?
Many blessings To All…
LOTD
Image via Wikipedia
Well, it’s football season, so it is only appropriate that the quote and thoughts that follow may require you to “go deep” to receive it [OK, OK, that is a bit cheesy]. Anyway, the quote is attributed to Shariputra, considered to be one of the foremost disciples of Buddha. He said:
“My friend, things appear and disappear according to causes and conditions. The true nature of things is not being born, and not dying. Birth and death are nothing more than concepts.”
That’s heavy, huh?
The first sentence is pretty easy to get; in the world that we know as material, things come and go according to causes and conditions. Take, for instance, a turkey sandwich, (or a vegetable sandwich if you are a vegetarian).
The sandwich “appears” because the necessary ingredients are available at a particular moment in time, there is a motivating force, (you), that assembles those ingredients and, voila! – you have caused a turkey sandwich to appear. The conditions were right, and there was a causal power. It will likewise “disappear” once it has been consumed, and the condition of “not being hungry” will arise as you will have satisfied the conditions for that state to manifest, and so on. A sandwich was born, and then it died, right? Well, sort of.
Your turkey sandwich may be dead and gone but, assuming that there continues to be a supply of the required ingredients existing somewhere, then the turkey sandwich will always live on as a potential, just awaiting the right conditions to arise for its “re-birth.” OK, now that you are hungry, I’ll switch gears.
Understand that the true nature of a sandwich is nothing more than a concept, which is defined as “an idea of something formed by mentally combining all of its characteristics and particulars.” In that sense, (though it is a very simplified and silly analogy), a turkey sandwich is eternal; it merely waits for the right conditions to appear. Now we shall move to humans.
What you see when you gaze into your mirror appeared, it had its “birth,” when the necessary causes and conditions were met. And, that form will “die” when the conditions necessary for it to continue are no longer being fulfilled. But YOU, your TRUE nature, is eternal. You are not solely what you can observe in the mirror, but rather a piece of the eternal energy and nature of the universe – not subject to the concepts of birth and death. How can an energy that has, and always will, exist, be “born,” or “die?” It cannot.
Yes, your present body will at some point cease to enjoy the necessary conditions to support its continuance. But the energetic potential from which the form arose, the REAL you, carries on, merely awaiting a new set of favorable conditions to enable it to be “re-born,” or to achieve its final destination.
To know this at the deepest level of your being will bring total and perfect peace. Without the fear of death, what is left to disturb one’s quiet repose? Nothing.
Many Blessings To All…
LOTD
Whoever it is, congratulations…that’s EXACTLY who you are.
Sometimes, words are harsh, particular if they are wrapping a fistful of facts.
So, just WHO the hell do you think you are?
It would be extremely wise for you to take the time to know the answer to that question…because you will live the experiences of that answer every day.
It may take some time but, just as with voting, majority rules. The way that you answer that question most often WILL establish the boundaries of your experience.
It doesn’t matter in the slightest if you believe what you have just read. Why would you believe me? All that is necessary is HONESTY.
Honestly evaluate the way that you habitually believe, then examine the long-term trend of your experience, and you will have your own proof of the validity of the words you have read in this blog. Might be tough to stomach, but medicine doesn’t always taste good.
Many Blessings To All…
LOTD
The hour is late…I ought to be in bed. But here I am, typing away.
I feel anger…a base emotion. And what am I angry about? Gurus and Swamis and preachers and priests.
Maybe I’m not angry about them, per se, but about their “followers.”
This is an angry post…or perhaps “frustrated and indignant” would be a better description. These people are closer to “God” than you? If they are, it is only because you do not trust your own heart. You seek wisdom from another, all the while dismissing the fact that the wisdom is within you. How much easier it is to be “told’ than to trust what is within.
Support me with your money and I can show you the truth of God. Really? God doesn’t need your money, and is not more powerful in one person than another. If you trust your own, inner voice, your intuition, then you have all the guide that you will ever require.
Yes, you may listen to my words, or the words of some other spiritual “leader,” and gain something from it…but know this…you are embracing a substitute for knowledge that is already yours. You are abandoning your own, innate wisdom, and presuming the pre-eminence of another.
Only YOU can know what God has designed for your life – STOP kissing the rings of “spiritual authorities,” and trust that Spirit that is within you to lead and guide. THIS is wisdom. All that you need to know is already present.
Do you have that courage? Can you accept that the Infinite will share with you EVERYTHING if only you will trust?
Yes, take a guide…but not for long. The journey is yours, and yours alone. You need not the crutch of a “guru.” They may point the way…but the path is yours to walk. TRUST that which is within you, and discover the worlds that Creation has set aside for you.
Many Blessings To All…
LOTD
What have you lost?
A house?
A car?
A loved one?
Innocence?
Hope?
Faith?
Happiness…
Or maybe you have lost interest altogether – in everything.
But, however painful or disheartening it may have been to suffer a loss, the good news is that “lost” is a past tense word. It’s done. It’s finished. Outside of playing it over and over again in your mind with dead-end “what if” scenarios, you cannot experience the loss again. What you DO have is what is important, and what you DO have is that most important, unwritten, unpainted, blank piece of canvas that is your future. As Christian Bovee wrote:
“When all else is lost, the future still remains.”
It remains, and it will be what you choose to make of it. That includes the next hour, the next day, the next week, or the next fifty years. By doing something as simple as taking a different route to work, or breaking your daily routine in some seemingly insignificant way, you can begin to experience life with a new and fresh perspective. Try it. It works.
Just think about it. Regardless of what plans you may have made, (or are allowing others to make for you), the FUTURE DOES NOT YET EXIST! It is only potential; it WILL be what you make of it.
Try smiling and laughing when you don’t really feel like it. Try believing that everything will work out in your favor, no matter how it looks. Dare to dream and expect those dreams to come to pass at any moment. Every time the phone rings, imagine that it is great news for you.
Do this one moment at a time, and those moments will add up to days, and those days into weeks, and those weeks into years.
Do this, and one day you will look around you and realize that your dreams are in your lap, and the future is an exciting adventure waiting for you to arrive.
Many Blessings To All…
LOTD
