10.26.07
Posted in Spirituality, Thoughts at 3:45 pm by Administrator
You are the source of all things. Any thing which can be observed is an experience. The experiences in life are supported by you. When I speak of the “you” I’m not talking about your personality, body, mind or spirit. I’m talking about the real you, the you that is eternal and changeless, the you that is beyond conditions and conceptualization.
This “you” cannot be described. All that can be said about it, is what it is not, and that is really no way to understand something. To fully grasp your real self requires that you be it. Since you are it all the time, no effort can bring this about.
So what’s the problem? If you are your self all the time, why bother trying to “be” your self? That in itself is precisely the problem. People spend their time trying to be themselves or to find themselves. You are your self. So there is nothing you can do to be it, nor is there any secret map directing you to its location. This whole matter isn’t really about being or finding, it is about knowing. Confusion is the problem. On one hand there is confusion about what and where you are, and on the other there is the confusion about how to go about getting settled in the knowing of your self.
Many theories and practices have risen to help with this dilemma that affects humanity. Most of these fall under the umbrella of religion and spirituality. Let me throw out the idea that although religion and spirituality is very helpful for the beginner, the source of all things goes beyond these two sources of conditioning.
Part of the process of fully knowing your self requires the shedding of beliefs when the time comes. When we are children, it is alright to think as children. As we grow up we learn that certain actions and systems of thought no longer work. So, hopefully, we evolve, learn what does work and apply the changes to our life situation.
When first undertaking the task of spiritual growth and self-realization most people have the idea that there is a power or force beyond them that if they appease or worship approptiately will do the work for them. This is alright at first. It carries the proper intention, that to go beyond former conditioning. As the person grows and becomes firm in their worship of this “divine other” the life begins to change. The original intention of growing to spiritual maturity begins to sprout. The person may begin to think of things differently. They may question the way they’ve been living. All of this is the self becoming clearer and more knowable.
Sometimes people don’t like this change. They fight it and try to remain fixed in their way of thinking and living. Here is where problems first arise. To know your self requires and openness to change and development. Because even though you are always your self and you are never lost, there is the wrong identification with what you are. So the changes that occur are actually the realignment of your attention with what you really are, and not the things you observe.
The difference between a person who knows what they are, the source of all things, and the person who doesn’t, is that the first person doesn’t get caught up in the observable world and think that when change occurs, something has died. The first person knows that they are eternal. They experience that eternal being in all changes. Changes come and go, the self remains. The second person is not fully aware of this eternal nature of their real self, so when things change, they freak out. Why? Because they are confused. They think that which they observe is what they really are. It’s a hallucination really.
There is also the confusion that what you are is something that can be observed. Examples to this effect are love, peace, or similar pleasant states. Remember, that which rises will also fall. In the beginning it may be helpful to imagine that your true nature is eternal love or eternal peace, but really peace and love are conditions. If they can come and go, they are not real. Enjoy them so long as they are useful, but be open to going beyond them.
You exist free of conditions, and you are the source of all things. If you want to know what all this means in experience rather than conceptually, good for you. Thinking about things can only take you so far. Eventually you will need to start embodying what is understandable with the mind. Then it goes beyond the mind.
To do this, one practice common to all authentic “enlightenment” traditions is most helpful. (Now why did I put quotes around enlightenment? Because it is just a word. It’s good for a reference point, but don’t get too hung up on what you think it might mean.) This is the practice of concentration. Learning to fix your mind on a thought or idea, strengthens the mind. When the mind gets stronger, thousands of random useless thoughts no longer invade and run wild. When this occurs, the mind can in time be fully silenced and you can then more easily know what you are without interference.
Permalink
10.10.07
Posted in Spirituality, Thoughts at 6:13 pm by Administrator
(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.
Permalink
10.09.07
Posted in Spirituality, Thoughts at 2:38 pm by Administrator
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…)
Permalink
09.28.07
Posted in Spirituality, Thoughts at 11:26 am by Administrator
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:
Permalink
09.06.07
Posted in Thoughts at 11:58 am by Administrator
Human potential is much greater than the majority of the population in our current era seem to know. A chiropractor friend of mine decided to put a new slogan on his office wall. It reads, “Quit complaining and start training.” I’ve come to appreciate this saying, because I feel it addresses the heart of what is needed to attain what is desired and break through self made boundaries–as they are all self made.
The body experiences pain and disease because of weakness. Exercise, good food, and a clear mental/emotional state are the basis for strength. Exercise should be sufficiently intense. I realize walking is a great form of exercise and very popular, but more also needs to be done. I enjoy taking walks through the park and often see many people walking around the paved loop that are overweight and all sweaty. When I see this, I ask myself, “Is walking really doing them any good?”
The muscles need challenged as well as the bones, ligaments, heart and lungs. This needs to occur on a regular basis, and it needs to be fun. If you don’t like exercise, change your mental state and really get into it. The more you enjoy it the more beneficial it will be and the less soreness, stiffness, or discomfort will it cause.
The mind experiences pain and mental distress also because it is weak. The mind needs trained. Through meditation and discipline you learn to master your mind. Your thoughts and emotions then no longer control you. Then, if you like what you experience on the mental/emotional it can be allowed to persist. If you do not like it, you make the necessary CHOICE and shift to a state of consciousness that is clear.
To further empower the full development of your potential what is most powerful is to give the results all up to the highest power. When you meditate, don’t do it to escape from problems. Do it for God (my word for the highest power). When you exercise, don’t do it to lose weight so you can look attractive in a swimsuit for the opposite sex or to impress the same gender, do it for God. When you make the choice to adjust your state of consciousness and demonstrate your will power don’t do it to please anyone else or even your self, do it for God. Doing anything for anyone other than God is a compulsion and therefore not liberating or free. We are not hear to further bind ourselves to conditioning.
Permalink
08.23.07
Posted in Thoughts at 3:18 pm by Administrator
As we learn and grow, we are changing. We are either changing and finding ways to further cement ourselves into a pattern of rigidity, which eventually becomes lifeless, or we are becoming fluid and adaptable and receptive to the flows of life that ripen our souls.
Inertia plays a big role in the experiences in our daily lives. What we are experiencing now is the result of our past and present mental and emotional states. Those experiences will continue, more or less the same, until our mental and emotional states shift. The shift can occur naturally and subconsciously or as a matter of concsious choice.
We can know when the shift occurs subconciously when interactions, people or situations of the past that were once enjoyable lose their luster. Something has changed. We can make a conscious choice to change our present experience by imagining what it is that we desire and then adopting the mental and emotional states that we would experience if our desire was already real.
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
08.22.07
Posted in Thoughts, Healing at 4:35 pm by Administrator
I felt compelled to write a follow up to our last session. Since you are just getting involved in the “alternative” healing scene and also the “new age” crowd, I would like to share with you a few facts from my own experiences in this arena. My goal in this writing is not to dissuade you, but to save you time.
I’ve been professionally involved with this scene for the last 7 years. In that time I’ve met many people, healers, channels, herbalists, teachers, intuitives etc, etc. I’ve taught classes, taken classes, gotten sessions, given sessions, and observed many interactions, and also been told many experiences other people have, as well as had my own interesting perceptions. I’ve tried many products touted as amazing cures and remedies.
Of all the hundreds (maybe in the thousands) of people I’ve met in this field and worked with I can count
5 that I would actually
fully trust their advice and knowledge, and would ask them to work with me.
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
07.28.07
Posted in Happiness, Thoughts, Healing at 10:39 am by Administrator
Usually I’m one for saying “Healing doesn’t have to hurt.” I still agree with that. It doesn’t have to hurt. But sometimes it does. Sometimes life delivers a good kick in the head and it is bothersome. Life doesn’t do that for fun, it does it when people aren’t listening to it. It is important to listen to life. Life can communicate gently and peacefully, but ultimately it will do what is necessary to get its message across.
This week I could say I got a good kick in the head from life. That awoke in me quite a few realizations of the way I had been thinking and being and how I needed to change some of my internal environment.
Thankfully I have a few very helpful and people in my life. Using the Yuen Method we cut through the underlying causes. Using meditation I was able to reflect on what needed to change in myself and to re attune to my spiritual source.
After spending a good week feeling unsettled and anxious, I had a good night’s sleep last night. I had pleasant dreams. I awoke up early, joyfully.
I attribute this to the fact that I seriously took stock of how I was living and thinking and made a firm commitment to change. I must say I’ve tried this in the past couple of years, but it did not stick. There is a difference this time. I now know why I need to be different. Before I didn’t know the why, and so there was no real energy behind the commitment. As I’ve said before, knowing the why is very important. It somehow takes the struggle out of the process of becoming the goal.
I’ve both implied and said this before too, what happens to me in my life is the result of my own actions and thoughts. However, reassuring it might initially feel to blame someone else, that just skirts around the issue and ignores the real source of my experiences. Both pleasure and pain are the result of my internal states. They come to me because something in me attracts them.
I have a friend who has often said, that “it is not you I’m worried about, it’s the other guy.” An example might be one could be a perfect driver but some nut will come along and smash up your car. So it wasn’t your fault it was the other guy’s. There is no other guy. If it is within myself than I will experience it. If it is not, then I will not.
I’ve often been afraid to admit that understanding out loud, for fear that some cosmic law called, “Let’s Prove Ryan Wrong” would go into effect. Well…that may be. If I have that concept within my consciousness it has the potential to occur. Same thing applies.
Last night I dreamt I was sleeping in a bedroom at my father’s parent’s (now deceased) house. Mostly I associated them with unhappiness and strife, as that is how I knew them in life. But in this dream it was peaceful. I knew they were no longer alive, and I got up from bed and wandered through the living room and kitchen down stairs to the basement where I knew Melissa was. Before reaching the basement I was slightly afraid I would see the ghost of my grandmother. I kept going. At the top of the stairs I could see candlelight flickering in the basement. I would say it was wintertime and probably chilly outside. At the bottom of the stairs, I saw Melissa sitting in the middle of the room with decorated christmas trees all around her, two candles lit and a slew of decorations everywhere. She looked up at me and said, “I finally got to airing out under the bar and found all these. Did you know they were there?” She was indicating all the decorations. It was a very happy feeling.
Alcoholism was a known problem in my dad’s side of the family. Hence, the reference to the bar. When I woke up this morning from that dream I had a sense that underneath all the crap (the negativity and alcoholism of my father’s family) there is good and there is beauty and there is peace (The Christmas decorations), and that we can choose to see either.
For the longest while I felt that I had to experience both the good and the bad to be whole. Now I know that there is no need to create or experience drama or problems. Good and bad are just words. An experience is an experience. The label doesn’t change that. To be whole requires being whole. It doesn’t have to be conditioned.
Permalink
07.27.07
Posted in Spirituality, Happiness, Thoughts at 4:39 pm by Administrator
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 »
Permalink
« Previous entries · Next entries »
