10.10.07
Living in Abundance Part 2
(Continued from Yesterday)
**Note: This section are simply notes for the talk.
Living abundantly is a relative idea. Everyone may have a different concept in mind when they think of what it means to live in abundance. Some might think it means having enough to pay the bills, others might think it means be healthy enough to be able to take a walk outside, one person might think it means having enough money to build an arts center to help enrich the culture of the world, and some might think it means having good friends. Whatever it means to the individual doesn’t matter. Learning to function in abundance requires the same formula.
1) Decide what it is you want to have more abundantly in your life.
2) Take some time to have a self honest discussion with your self about if you are really ready to commit to the changes you may be called to make in order to experience it. As demonstrated by my own example this is very important, because one of two things can happen if you don’t. One, you won’t get what you want because you don’t make any changes affirming your choice, or two, you will get what you want and if your not paying attention when it starts to come into your life it may overwhelm you temporarily.
3) You may also want to take a look at how much you might secretly pride yourself on suffering by not having enough, and how you can endure on so little better than others who have more. As I mentioned earlier, I was somewhat prideful on this point and after much studying the subject of prosperity and applying what I have learned I realized that having more money and more free time by doing what I loved would allow me to be of much greater service to the world. I would be free to travel and give talks, work with people on a donation basis. I would be free to do my work without the worry of if I had enough money to pay my bills. That is what abundance is really about, having the full support of the universe so you can do what you came here to do. Making it hard on yourself by maintaining a sense of lack doesn’t get you points on the score board, it just wastes your time.
4) Once you have a clear idea and you have committed to a course of action, imagine what it would feel like to have the abundance you desire. By this I don’t mean you have to affirm it constantly and force yourself to think about it always. Think about a person who’s always had lots of money or good health. They don’t think it’s strange that they have lots of money or good health. That’s just the way it is. You need to start living as though what you want in your life is just the way it is, which is nothing special and nothing to be groped for. People who always live in abundance vs. those who do not, think differently than someone who is not, but it actually goes beyond their thinking, their BEING is actually different.
5) Then go about your life doing what you know is necessary to support the realization of your goal. Now keep in mind, just because you want something badly doesn’t mean you innately know how to experience it. It may require reading books, finding out how others accomplished what you want, etc. You need to get the methods in your consciousness so that you have the proper tools to make your dreams possible, and believe me…ANYTHING is possible.
6) Remember, “There is nothing wrong with you that changing your self completely couldn’t fix.”
Now all that I’ve discussed so far relates to the relative objective world, the world we can experience with our senses. It is helpful to remember the source of that world when aspiring to live a life of abundance. If we are not centered in the source of creation, nothing in creation will ever satisfy us and so abundance will just be a painfully unattainable concept. To fully become conscious and accepting of all the resources available to us as we traverse the seas of life requires that we learn what we are at the core of our being. By learning that we are one in God and one in the self of all things and beings nothing which is meant to be ours will ever be denied us.
To do this, we give up the results of all our actions to God or whatever we conceive the highest power to be. We accept that all our actions, our successes and failures, are God working through us, God working as us. By doing this we give up our attachment and our fear, because then God’s will is directing his creation flawlessly. God knows how to take care of God’s creation. In times of inner reflection we can simply be as God is. If we don’t know fully what God is we can ask, and to take it a step further we can ask what our relationship is to God. With the repeated contemplation and intention to fully know our relationship in God the realization comes that we are fully one in God and that all our needs are provided. We are able to see our selves clearly and act appropriately in God. This is the true meaning of abundance. Once God is realized, there is nothing more to have or do except be as we are directed.
***Closing Meditation, opening our heart and minds to the infinite and knowing our complete connection to the infinite resources in the universe. And accepting that there may be things to learn and do for us to properly manage those resources.
10.09.07
Living in Abundance
Sunday Talk (Rough Draft)-Delivered at the Unity of Shepherdstown in Shepherdstown, WV on October 14th, 2007 and the Unity of Kanawha Valley in Charleston WV on October 21st, 2007.
Living in Abundance
When Rev. Anne Murphy at the Unity Church in Shepherdstown recommended that I focus the Sunday lesson topic of “Living in Abundance” I thought that it was a fantastic idea. For the last couple of years, Melissa and I, as well as many of my friends, have been focused on living a life of financial freedom. We’ve read the books, taken classes, learned “the secrets”, and even started to take action. However, as the time drew nearer to develop a talk on the subject, all that I had learned started to break down in my mind, and an extreme form of doubt set in and I had no idea how I was going to be authentic in giving this talk, and here is why.
As a few of you know, Melissa and I will be moving to Asheville, NC in December. She will begin her work in the public health field after graduating with her master’s degree from WVU and I will be focusing on creating the Asheville branch of Center of Spiritual Awareness, a Kriya Yoga meditation center. Now all of this sounds well and good, and did to me too for the last year and a half that we’ve been planning it, but somehow as the stress of moving seven hours away from the place I’ve lived all my life and the cost of moving and the cost of purchasing our new home with a ten percent down payment all balled up into one, I started to lose my faith that this was really a good idea. In fact, even though at the core of my being I knew this was the best thing in the world for both Melissa and myself and I had the blessing of my spiritual teacher in the endeavor, I was really starting to think this was a totally insane endeavor.
Now the reason this would’ve been easier to give, say a year ago, was because a year ago I was feeling pretty secure in my financial abundance. Even though for many years of my life after leaving my parent’s house up until recently, my income was just a couple thousand dollars above the poverty line, I was able to pay my bills, not go into debt, save lots of money, eat well and even afford a few well-appointed musical instruments along the way. To me, I was feeling very much in the flow of abundance. I didn’t even need a super stressful high paying job to achieve it. So in my mind, abundance had nothing to do with the amount of money I made, it had to do with how I managed it and how I lived within my means. I still hold that this is true, but my mental outlook was somewhat prideful on this point, and that was a block to prosperity. We’ll get more into that later.
The difference between then and now is that although I was still in the flow of grace the world around me was changing and I was being called to take more responsibility in life and it scared me to death. I was being called to move far away to fulfill what I knew in my heart was my true calling. I was being called into joy and into service. I was being called to do what I was sent here to do, yet it required me to tap into the grace of God that had grown so strong in my life, and I was unwilling to tap into that for fear it would run out and leave me high and dry, and that was the mistake I was making. That was my mind feeding me a line of bull and I was listening. As I let the weight of this move, which is really a total blessing, stress me out without need. I was looking at everything that could go wrong, rather than focusing on everything that was so right about this change.
After having a heart to heart talk with Melissa about all the turmoil I was experiencing about how I was perceiving the situation, and the doubt that had risen about my inability to speak on this matter I began to understand what was really happening. God was giving me exactly what I had asked for, as God does for all of us.
I’ve known for a very long time intellectually that if I want to change some circumstance in my life two things need to occur. One, I need to change. Two, I need to start doing things differently. So really, all that was occurring was right in line with that understanding. The information I’d been absorbing about learning to be financially free and all the inner work I had done was manifesting. My life WAS changing. Yet I was staying the same and that incongruence was causing the unneeded pain and stress. For the last two years I had been telling the universe I’m ready to be provided for in all ways. I’m ready to accept my value in this world. I’m ready to do what you created me to do! And like clock work the universe responded.
So the moral of my personal story is, if you want to strengthen your prosperity consciousness, be ready to ride the wave that will carry you to your destination. Because it WILL come, and freaking out just as your beginning to get carried to the destination does not help at all! Take some time to really understand what might be required to make the changes necessary to achieve your goals. Many people can talk about the changes they want to see in life, but few are willing to make the changes.
(To be continued…)
09.28.07
Knowing God and a Book
Hello. It’s been a while.
The following was a response to an email from a friend. She thought it would be good blog fodder, so here it is.
“You never lost your connection. It seems like you just diverted your attention to some static interference. The way to hear the voice within is to start listening to it again, and not your friend. : )
God is found within and within the company of those who know god. Doubt is found in those who know doubt.
In my experience, spiritual realization is a personal matter not benefited by talking about it with others. If you want to know God more intimately, spend time with God, in solitude. Keep your relationship personal, between you and God. When you do this, you will know what all knowers of God have discovered to be true.”
Secondly, the book I’ve been working on is now being posted online. It can be read here:
08.17.07
Meditation Techniques for Self and God-Realization
The following techniques can be used to elicit physical, mental and emotional peace, enabling you to experience the stillness of superconscious meditation. Commit to practicing meditation once or twice a day at the same time for at least 20 minutes for best results. Longer meditation sessions can be scheduled once proficiency is attained. Proficiency is attained through practice.
Meditation Technique #1 Chanting Through the Chakras
1) Sit with your spine and neck erect in a quiet place where you will not be disturbed for the duration of practice.
2) Take a moment to take 2-3 deeper than normal breaths and exhale with sigh after each breath, letting your body relax, while
maintaining a straight, up-right position.
3) Bring your attention to the base of your spine, down to the center of the area on which you are sitting. Focus your attention here.
Imagine a ball of life force in the area. Imagine what it would feel like to be aware of your life force in this way. Mentally hear the word OM resounding in that ball of life force at your first chakra. Repeat the chanting of OM 10-12 times. There is no need to count the repetitions. Estimate the number and move on when you are ready.
4) Bring your attention to area of your sacrum to slightly above the pubic bone. Focus your attention here. Imagine a ball of life force
in the area. Imagine what it would feel like to be aware of your life force in this way. Mentally hear the word OM resounding in that ball of life force at your second chakra. Repeat the chanting of OM 10-12 times.
5) Bring your attention to area opposite your navel, around the small of your back. Focus your attention here. Imagine a ball of life force in the area. Imagine what it would feel like to be aware of your life force in this way. Mentally hear the word OM resounding in that ball of life force at your third chakra. Repeat the chanting of OM 10-12 times.
6) Continue in this way at the fourth chakra, the area between your heart and your shoulder blades; the fifth chakra, the area between
your head and torso in the center of your throat; the sixth chakra, the space between your eyebrows; and the seventh chakra, the crown of
your head.
7) Then descend back down through the chakras chanting OM in the same manner.
8) Finally, chant OM back up through the seven chakras, finishing at the crown of the head.
9) Once you have chanted the last OM at the seventh chakra, keep your awareness in the crown of your head and sit in the silence generated from the practice of this technique. Feel your awareness expanding without boundary in the wholeness of God until your schedule time to conclude is reached.
Read the rest of this entry »
07.29.07
A Letter From Vamadeva
A few years ago I completed course work with the American Institute of Vedic Studies. The following are excerpts of a response to two emails I had sent to Vamadeva. This was all that was saved. I found it perusing old files I had saved. It holds many useful ideas on life and spiritual practice.
“Throughout the ages a multitude of spiritual techniques have been taught to sincere aspirants. Almost all of them have claimed to be the most effective in providing rapid and direct access to realizing the infinite truth of the divine. Each technique spoke to the needs of the practitioner and may very well have provided the spontaneous opportunity for enlightenment. In most cases though the plethora of spiritual practices only serve to create egotism and separatism between a body of people that are looking for the same thing and so should be united in purpose and action. Of all the techniques that have come down through the ages through various spiritual masters, there is but one that is common to all and yet rarely acknowledged or taught. Engaging life is the one practice that has consistently and effectively provided the framework to allow spiritual realization to come forth naturally. Without it, all other attempts may be in vain.
Many people seek out a spiritual path to solve the problems of their life. To often, this is just a masked attempt to escape from the problems. So no matter what path or technique they take up, not much changes be cause they are just running away from what they need to work on that they may make authentic spiritual progress. Resolving the trials of life is part of the spiritual path. We all have different areas of development we need to work on. Chanting through the chakras may provided a clearer state of mind to address these issues, but if we never use that clarity to work the issues what is the point?
The misconception that by meditation or worship alone life will be transformed into a unified field of experience where one’s relationship to the wholeness of life is realized needs to be eradicated. Specific spiritual practices are just as necessary as any other function of life. We need to eat and drink to maintain our bodies. We need enough resources to allow our worthwhile purposes to be actualized. We need to provide service to the world that we may play our part in the divine drama. We need time devoted to cultivating our spirit that we may experience life in its proper perspective. All of these together form the body of effective spiritual technique. They address all of life and allow us to develop the fullness of our infinite spirit.
Grace is important in spiritual development, and so is self effort. There is the saying that “God helps those who help themselves.” “
07.27.07
Faith and Moving Beyond Sorrow
The Bhagavad Gita 17:3
“Faith is in accord with the basic nature of each person. A person is made of faith. One is what one’s faith is.”
Commentary from The Eternal Way:
“Deferential regard is in accord with the basic mind-body constitution of each person. One’s personality and circumstances are the result of preferred attitudes and actions. A person’s present state or condition is the result of what is believed and done.” Read the rest of this entry »
07.14.07
A Letter About Healing and Faith
This is a letter I sent to a man working to heal his body. It felt important on a global level, so here it is.
“After seeing you in the hospital yesterday I got to reflecting on your situation this morning.
You’ve had surgery to cut out large masses of cancer. You’ve undergone chemo, and utilized various natural means of healing from EFT, to the Yuen Method, to various energy work. You’ve even had an astrological consultation and other recommendations. You gotten advice from doctors, alternative health practitioners and listened to your own inner guidance. You’ve told me that the medical community is running out of options, which is why you are now putting more emphasis on the “alternative” options.
Here is what I see when I see you. I see life strong in your being. I see a man who has become and is becoming very clear in his mental, emotional, and spiritual realizations. When I look at you, I don’t see the mental, emotional, and spiritual issues blocking your way any more. This is based on my first encounters with you however many years ago we’ve known each other. Sometimes you can look at a person and they just look dead and unresponsive or resistant inside. I do not see this when I look at you. Read the rest of this entry »
07.11.07
Duty and God’s Presence
For a long time I searched for a source of lasting happiness. I searched for it in the experiences of life, in the search for God, and in my self. Over the last few months it has become clearer as to the source of happiness.
There is a flow of “something”, I’m not sure what to call it, that permeates everything. It directs the life of all creatures and things from the minutest cellular function or atomic interaction to the grandest stellar and galactic dances. By attunement with this power life falls into synch with the infinite creation. It is here that happiness occurs.
This is not the joy of gaining something long desired, or the joy of relief from a troubling circumstance. It is an ecstasy beyond emotionalism or even devotion. It is indescribable perfection independant of pleasure or pain. It is simple and nothing special at all.
By clearing my mind and being of identification with the things that can be observed, and inviting this power to enliven my being, I ask for direction. What am I to do today, at this moment? Then in the silent waiting, an impulse arises directing a course of action in harmony with the intelligent design of all things. It could be as simple as washing the dishes, paying the bills, taking the time to write or play music, or working on an important project, but when that impulse to action is expressed, all burst alive with still perfection, like a rose taking in the sun, or existing in a storm, or dying to return wence it came.
Once this realization dawned, that by asking to participate willingly in the unfolding moments of creation centered in the depths of my beingness, I knew my duty.
It is my individualized duty to make what “I” want out of life. The design is already there. The resources are already there. I only need to remain receptive to the direction and timing, and know that the “I” that wants life to move in a certain way is more excellent than any random whims of the mental field, the store house of memories and conditioning.
05.12.07
Vasistha’s Yoga II.3
II.3 “Countless have been the universes that have come into being and dissolved. In fact even the countless universes that exist at this moment are impossible to conceive of. All this can immediately be realized in one’s own heart, for these universes are the creation of the desire that arises in the heart like castles built in the air. The living being conjures up this world in his heart and while he is alive he strengthens this illusion; when he passes away he conjures up the world beyond and experiences it- thus there arises worlds within worlds just as there are layers within layers of a plantain stem. Neither the worlds of matter, nor the modes of creation are truly real; yet the living and the dead think and feel they are real. Ignorance of this truth keeps up appearances.”
The universe and all experiences within it are sustained by the intentions and desires created through the thoughts of living beings. Pure consciousness is the heart of every being. By returning attention to pure consciousness, one can realize the source of creation and the root causes of experiences within creation. Identifying with one’s pure conscious nature, rather than the personality and external circumstances in life, Self-mastery is possible.
Knowing that experiences are the results of thought patterns enables one to come to terms with the causes of present circumstances and to thereby take responsibility for the future. Current experiences are the result of past intentions. Future experiences are the result of current intentions. The world one experiences and the world one will experience in the future can be directed through observation and regulation of thought patterns.
If one is not accepting of the fact that enlightenment is as natural as the wind blowing or the sun shining, one can observe the thought patterns that support that lack of acceptance and with gentle intention change the thought patterns. The essence of every person is whole, clear, serene and enlightened. When this is accepted as truth, one can then begin acting appropriately as an enlightened person.
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