11.28.2009

December 3rd 2009 - Restriction and Choice: Part 2

One of my mentors said, "The mind can be a good friend, but it makes a terrible master." I sometimes seem like I am speaking of the mind as an enemy, but I think it is important to note that you don't want to make an enemy of the mind. I tried that for awhile, and it was not pleasant. If you fight the mind, the mind will fight back. Be friendly about it. The mind is what makes sense out of a world that is really illusory. It's really just an ocean of energy. The mind categorizes all the different energies. It separates one color from the next. This makes for an interesting experience.

The mind makes a lot of associations. I could write a book just on associations, I think. I can't stop thinking about this subject. I'm going to introduce it now, but I think it deserves at least another full blog entry. The problem is that the mind makes a lot of meaningless and misguided associations. For example, as soon as we see a person, the mind starts creating all kinds of assumptions about the person based on the way they look, the way they are dressed, the way that they walk, etc. We can't see a person for more than a few seconds, without the mind creating 4 or 5 stories about what that person must be like. The stories are based on associations we have with other people we met who had similar characteristics. But we have no idea who this new person is, even though they have a recognizable appearance. The stories are all just fabrications of the mind. There might not be a shred of truth to them. But we continue to size people up, and create all kinds of stories and assumptions about how we expect them to act. If you allow the mind to go off on these tangents, unchecked, your life will just be a big story, a big drama.

Sometimes, you have to stop believing the mind, and be open to the possibility that people will act completely different than you expect them to from first glance. Don't judge a book by its cover. One time I was in a nightclub, and a very tall and very broad African-American guy walked in my path and stopped there. I stepped to the left to walk around him, and he moved to the left. I stepped to the right, and he moved to the right. At that point, I got a little nervous. I finally looked him in the eye, and he smiled, leaned down and gave me a big hug. A few years later, when I was studying Kabbalah, one of my teachers once said, "When you are walking in a dark alley and somebody is walking behind you, why do you assume that they are coming to harm you? Why don't you think they might be coming to love you?"

Don't be controlled by the fabrications of your mind. Choose what to think about a thing or situation, and that thing or situation is transformed instantly, at least in your personal world. Isn't that the only world that really exists from your persepective? Even if you turn out to be wrong, isn't it better to make a better-feeling assumption? Or can you let go of making any assumption, at all? If you can restrict yourself from always believing the drama of the mind, you can create your own story. When you create your own stories, the mind will eventually go along with you. When you challenge the negative associations, your mind will start offering you more pleasant ones. The mind can become a good friend.

As Franklin Delano Roosevelt wisely put it, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." He was telling us to stop believing the fearful fabrications of our minds. Would you rather lead a Life full of fear or one full of Love? Choose your story, and tell it to your mind.

Mindfully,
Alan ;)

11.27.2009

November 28th 2009 - Restriction and Choice: Part 1

So I am not called a hypocrite, I am not perfect at ANYTHING I am pitching. I have an easier time with some issues than others. Most of the stuff I have written about, I have at least had remarkable improvement. I don't know if you ever get to the end of any of this. I think that perfection is a myth. Any record can be broken. I think that there is a constant evolution. You can always do a little better. If you catch me in a moment of weakness, and I am not taking my own medicine, please remind me. Believe me, I have challenges just like everyone else. I mostly handle them differently than I used to. I find that RESTRICTION is key - restricting the conditioned complaining, whining and obsessing that the mind offers me about a challenge and CHOOSING to think differently about the situation.

For whatever reason, your body will crave all kinds of sweets, processed and junk foods that are bad for your body. If you feed those cravings all the time, you will not enjoy good health. If you RESTRICT those cravings, and choose to eat good foods instead - or at least most of the time - you are much more likely to enjoy good health.

Just like you have to feed the body good food to be healthy, you must feed the mind good thoughts for it to remain healthy. Like the body craves unhealthy foods, the mind has an odd craving for unhealthy thought patterns. The mind constantly feeds itself on obsession, fear, worry, doubt, blame, anger, etc. You can control your mind, though, by RESTRICTING it as soon as possible after it starts feeding on a negative thought pattern. You can then actively CHOOSE good thoughts to feed it. When the mind CHOOSES to feed on anger, you can challenge the mind by refusing to get angry (or by doing the best you can), and by CHOOSING the thoughts you want.

In other words, you can CHOOSE to let the mind control you.
This is allowing the mind to do the CHOOSING for you. This is the default option CHOSEN by most people. The problem is that most people are not even aware that there is a CHOICE, just like I was not aware that there was a CHOICE most of my life. You can't make a CHOICE until you are aware that one exists. This is why it is very important not to become judgmental about others, after you improve. You always have to remember that you were once in the same boat. Everybody else in the world is not going to understand a concept just because you now understand it.

OK, so if you are not going to let the mind do the CHOOSING, you can take control of the mind, and make the CHOICES about what to think.

To be continued...

Choose Wisely,
Alan

11.26.2009

November 27th 2009 - Everyday is Thanksgiving Day!

I chose not to post anything on Thanksgiving Day, partly because I figured there was already quite a lot of gratitude being thrown about. For me, every day is Thanksgiving Day. I am constantly trying to be in the consciousness of gratitude. I am constantly trying to be aware of everything that I have been given in the moment. Even the moment, itself, is a precious gift. I sometimes forget to be aware, especially in moments of busy-ness, but even if the awareness comes a bit late, it's still awareness.

Remember, after 9/11, all those flags flapping off seemingly everybody's car? There were flags everywhere. Where are they now? It was a bandwagon mindset. It wore off over time. Isn't it somewhat like that with Thanksgiving Day? We get all geared up. We eat our big meal, we say our "Thankses," and the next day we're back to our former state of consciousness - expressing gratitude only occasionally. How about this year, we start a Thanksgiving Day Resolution? Who said they were exclusive to the New Year? How about staying in a state of gratitude, every day? How about looking for things to be grateful for all day, every day? It's a good technique for crowding out negative thought patterns, like worry, anger and victim mentality. Whenever an ungrateful thought comes along, why not chose to be thankful for ANYTHING YOU CAN THINK OF, instead? There is always something you can be thankful for. If you focus on that, you'll crowd out negative thinking in no time flat. There won't be any space left for it. Now, wouldn't that be something to be grateful for?

Humbly,
Alan

P.S.
I wouldn't recommend you make eating turkey every day part of your resolution.

11.22.2009

November 23rd 2009 - Dogma

The concept of Dogma keeps entering my mind lately. I'm only now starting to really understand the concept of Dogma. According to Wikipedia, "Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, ideology or any kind of organization: it is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted or diverged from." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogma. Dogma is usually followed with what we call "blind faith."

What I really want to say is that anything anybody tells you, including me, is merely Dogma, unless - and until - you experience it personally. Many of the spiritual paths I have studied differentiate themselves from religion by the fact that you experience tangible changes in your Life by following them. Blind faith becomes unnecessary after actual experience. When an overpowering and beautiful energy opens up and radiates from your Heart center and overcomes your whole being, it's much different from somebody telling you that they have a technique to open your Heart. Before I felt that, I had a totally different concept of what it meant to "open your Heart." One of my mentors said often, "An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of theory." Theory is Dogma.

I have advocated certain practices to my readers from a dogmatic perspective. How am I to know which practice is perfect for you? I only know what has worked for me. One of my readers was inspired to start practicing another type of Yoga than I have advocated. She's loving it, and I am so excited that she pursued it after being inspired by my writing. Maybe that's her path. Maybe it's an even more powerful path than those I've studied. Who knows?

Heartily,
Alan

11.18.2009

November 21st 2009 - Forgiving Ourselves

Dropping our personal histories and reinventing ourselves is much easier when we learn to apply self-forgiveness. As we are reinventing ourselves and shifting perspective, we tend to get HARDER on ourselves. We tend to get MORE judgmental of our past acts and omissions when we start to see them from a more evolved state of consciousness. I think that is helpful to recognize that it is only because we have grown so much, that we are able to see our past actions in such a harsh light. We should be patting ourselves on our own backs, just as we are beating ourselves up. We have grown SO far from the perspective from which we acted, that we now can't imagine how we possibly did such things.

It is best to seek forgiveness from those that we hurt in the past. By doing so, both parties are able to heal the scars caused by those interactions. The extent of the healing is conditioned upon the willingness of the forgiver to genuinely forgive, as well as the willingness of the forgiven to fully accept forgiveness. Even when the offended party refuses to forgive, I believe that self-forgiveness should be applied. We all make mistakes. We are all blinded at times by our TEMPORARY, mistaken perspectives. We should not beat ourselves up eternally for TEMPORARY states of mind. We should allow ourselves to be reinvented, even when the offended party refuses to let go. And, of course, whether or not the offended party forgives, if we can't forgive ourselves, the healing cannot be complete. For some, including myself, it is easier to forgive others than it is to forgive ourselves. This is, in my opinion, a key factor in self-evolution.

Moving On,
Alan

November 20th 2009 - Reinventing Ourselves

The concept I want to write about today is dropping our personal history. At some point in most of our lives, it becomes vital, in my opinion. Of course, your opinion is more important. It is hard to reinvent ourselves if we are carrying the weight of all of our past mistakes with us, everywhere we go. This is a time in history where many of us will be forced to reinvent ourselves. Old ways are quickly becoming obsolete and yielding to new ways. Reinventing yourself means that you are creating a new you. That means the old you is history. I am writing about this, because it is something that has challenged me, personally. I mean dropping the ancient history that has nothing to do with what I am anymore.

We sometimes spend so much time focused on the rear view mirror, that we lose focus on what's right in front of us. We lose our opportunity to focus on the Now, as well as the future, when we allow ourselves to be mired in our past mistakes. We spend so much time remembering how we got to where we are, we are not able to focus on where we want to go. It's OK to review your past mistakes, so you don't fall prey to them again. When you become obsessed with them - churning them over and over again in your mind - you get stuck. This can be difficult to overcome, because the mind is habitual and loves to churn over and over again. In order to overcome this, I believe, you can proactively insert a new pattern for your mind to churn. When the old pattern comes up, insert the new pattern. Tell your mind where you want to go, and refuse to get stuck in the old pattern again. Keep inserting the new pattern when the old returns. I've been working on this. It ain't easy. It takes time. Maybe a lot of time. I believe that if you don't give up, you'll eventually get over the hump. I'm still climbing the hump on a few issues, but I've noticed that I am closer to the tipping point, because I catch my repetitive patterns and stop them much more quickly.

You use the rear view mirror sparingly when driving, because you are moving forward. The faster you are moving forward, the more essential it is to pay attention to what's ahead of you. If you watch the rear view mirror all the time, you won't get very far. In fact, you may end up crashing into what's ahead of you. You can't change history, but you can shift your focus from it. All you really have is Now.

Reinvented (and probably not for the last time),
Alan

November 18th 2009 - Shifting Perspective

Hello again. I haven't written much since I got back from my West Coast trip. I've been going through a bit of a consciousness shift. People who are on a spiritual track go through many. When your awareness shifts, you may look back at what you have written, said and done - even the day before - and it doesn't make sense anymore. In fact, from your new space of awareness, you may find that much of what you have written, said and done is "wrong." I don't mean to say that there is absolute right and wrong. I don't believe in absolute right and wrong. Right and wrong is always based on your current perspective. Even if 99% of people agree, it doesn't mean the other 1% is wrong. Remember, again, the Flat Earth theory that was accepted by virtually 100% just a few hundred years ago. People hadn't reached a perspective, yet, that allowed them to see the world as spherical. Now everyone has.

Please excuse me if I repeat the same stories or concepts sometimes, but sometimes I believe they are worth being revisited, especially if from a different angle. People will understand the concepts only if portrayed in a way that fits their current perspective, and my audience, I believe, varies tremendously in perspective. This is a good thing, because it allows us to have more variety of experiences and opinions. If everyone agreed on everything, Life might get very boring. One thing I realize more is that is important not to judge others experiences and opinions. Sometimes the simplest person will be the one who sees the big picture, because they are not lost in too many concepts. I think that some of my past writings came too much from a judgmental point of view, and from the perspective that my way was right. I apologize to anyone who felt judged. We are all pretty hard on ourselves as it is, and I understand that following some of my past prescriptions would not be an easy task for many. I will still make recommendations, which you can take or leave, if I found some growth or joy from following them.

We all go through shifts in perspective. Most of our perspectives about how time should be spent have shifted dramatically, for example. Twenty years ago, we didn't have YouTube, Facebook, blogs, text messaging or iPhones, so we didn't spend any time on them. Now many of us spend countless hours every week on these modalities. Can you even remember what you were doing with that time 10 years ago? Are you finding more joy in these things, or were you spending your time more joyfully before? Not judging. Just asking. When was the last time you went to dinner without somebody checking something on their phone? Yes, me too.

One thing I notice from my new perspective is that my writings are sometimes too long. My mind tends to ramble and wants to say everything at once. Very few people will read my entire post if it is long. I'll stop here for now.

From My Perspective,
Alan

11.02.2009

November 3rd 2009 - The Echo of Energy

I was watching television recently (which I rarely do, for this very reason) and came across a piece about a movie that I thought was very disturbing. I don't want to get into the subject matter of the movie. We are all aware that there are a lot of disturbing movies being made. My question is, why are people paying money to see them? Why do people enjoy seeing people being killed, raped, beaten, shot, kidnapped, etc. in movies? Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Less disturbing, but still disturbing in my opinion, are all the movies, shows, books and articles about people mistreating each other, hating each other, talking bad about each other, etc. What is entertaining about that stuff? A lot of people rationalize that this is the way Real Life is, and they want to see, hear and read material about Real Life. Why?

The reason I bring this up is because I believe that people are mostly unaware of the immensely powerful connection between what is portrayed in the media - whether it be fact or fiction - and what pans out in Real Life. There is a very powerful bidirectional flow of energy between the media and Real Life. They constantly echo each other. People fashion Life from what they see, hear or read in the media, while the media fashion their products from Life, real or imagined. People accept that what is expressed or portrayed in the media is a suitable representation of what Life is supposed to look like, and, lo and behold, Life continues on that way.

What I would like to suggest is that until the vicious cycle of media and Life feeding each other garbage is replaced with representations of Life as we really want it to be, Life will remain just as it is. Although we can't control the products the media put out, we can refuse to consume them. We can make choices about what kind of stories and imagery we want to allow into our minds, knowing that our minds will fashion our ideas about Life from whatever imagery and information our minds take in, from whatever source.

I am not suggesting that we completely insulate ourselves from reality, and run away from all of the trouble in the world. There are problems in the world that we need to fix through global cooperation. Watching a documentary for the purpose of becoming informed, or reading a news article to understand what is going on in less-advantaged parts of the world is not what we need to guard our minds against. What we need to guard our minds against is the glorification of violence and hatred. This stuff has no entertainment value. You have to ask yourself, what part of you wants to go to a movie to be scared, or to see people kill each other for fun or money. This kind of imagery is all too common, today. When you spend your money and time consuming such imagery, you are feeding it.

I would highly recommend that people monitor what kind of information they are getting from the media. When you watch a television show, ask yourself what value you are really getting from spending your precious time watching that show. When I see television shows depicting scenarios that I wouldn't want played out in Life, I change the channel, or turn the TV off. Frankly, I watch very little TV, because I don't think there is much worthwhile to watch. I also don't go to the movies as much as I used to, because I don't enjoy what is portrayed in most of them. I used to love watching movies about organized crime and war, and now I ask myself why I ever sat through them? Why do we enjoy seeing characters being dropped into rivers in cement shoes by guys named Vinnie and Rocco, or soldiers getting their legs blown off by land mines? We don't really understand how deeply this type of imagery affects our Consciousness. And then our Consciousness takes the imagery and concepts fed to it, and creates Real Life from it.

This past Saturday, I went to a park in the Everglades and biked 15 miles through the River of Grass. I saw so many beautiful birds. Blue Herons, Cranes, Hawks, Egrets, Aninghas, Blue Jays and more. I saw many fish. I even saw an alligator. That was some beautiful imagery. Nature is beautiful. If only people would spend more time in Nature, and less time shopping and watching television, we would have more beautiful lives. This morning, an egret flew right by my windshield over the hood of my car, before it landed on a nearby sidewalk, as I waited for a traffic light. It, literally, passed an inch or two over my hood. It was such an amazing sight. I don't think it was any coincidence. I've noticed that when I focus on Nature with gratitude, Nature answers by bringing me beautiful visions.

Take control of your mind. Fill it with the imagery you want to have in it. Refuse to contaminate it with all the poison that is out there. Sometimes it seems so inviting, but it's effects are lingering. Make your life a beautiful life. Make it a beautiful story to tell to your children and grandchildren, so that they will learn to fashion beautiful lives.

Naturally,
Alan