Who Are You????

To understand who you are, you must understand who you are not! In other words life will and must dismantle your own self image. The self image is the raw material out of which the masterpiece is carved. The masterpiece is that which remains when all illusion and confusion is dropped or stripped away! It is there within you longing to be revealed.

Chasing the Illusion

As we grow up in this culture we are taught that it is our right to pursue the American Dream! WE are then taught and programed by our teachers, politicians, religious leaders , and especially the media what the exact details of our dream should be. Is that dreaming or is it conforming to the societal system? Are we masters and creators of our life,or have we been brainwashed into believing in Illusion? Is our true creative genius being cultivated and nourished ,or is it being stifled and suppressed? Are we courageous enough to really allow that which wants to creatively manifest through us blossom, or have we given control of this over to those who would take it from us? In the act of ceding this power to others, we have lost our true freedom and creativity. True Freedom cannot be legislated! It is not a gift from the government or society as a whole. It is not attained or bought through financial wealth and success. It doesn't come from seeking or chasing or becoming anything. True freedom comes as we turn within and discover who we are ! It comes from knowing our inner reality not from chasing illusions. If you chase the American Dream you just might find the American Nightmare !!!

The Tao & the Intellect

The intellect can only know "about" the Tao. It is indirect knowledge. At best a rode map to realization. At its worst a source of confusion and conflict with another's knowledge "about" the Tao. The intellect can talk about it forever without getting any closer to it. Direct knowledge comes through the conscious mind located in the heart center, and the awareness mind located in the being center just below the navel. The mysterious gate starts from there into the eternal Tao!!! So study, but do so with this awareness! Once you have the map that is right for you, drop it!

Pain is not Pain

Pain is only painful because the mind labels it as so. If you remove the conceptual label, it reveals itself as a form of energy. It then becomes easier to allow it to be as it is. If your allowance is total it can be transmuted into spiritual energy for your growth! This process is not necessarily easy, however it does present an opportunity to make progress on the spiritual path. If you can transcend resistance to pain or attachment to pleasure, a deeper dimension within you will open up!This is called the path of tantra. The middle way is not a fixed position in the middle. It is realized through experiencing and transcending the polar extremes resulting in true balance. This is the door to the middle way. The Buddha within is on the other side of that door!

From Success to Samahdi

Most of us live for the dream of success or, because of failure , are just trying to survive. In either case, success and failure are not mutually exclusive! They are like the light and shadow sides of our selves. The same is true for pain and pleasure. This is the stuff of samsaric existence. What is Samsara? When we live in samsara we live on the periphery or circumference of life. We do not know our center!The circumstances of life have us firmly in there grip much like a tornado. Because of this we seek certainty or security by attaching to those things that we believe will protect us. Our hearts become closed and fearful of being hurt. In other words, we exist in a defensive posture trying to hold on as the Bull of life takes us for a ride.This is why no matter how much success we have, we are not content or satisfied. Out of a sense of lack or fear we always want more.
If we can somehow break this samsaric cycle and move to our center, like the center of the tornado or eye of the hurricane, we can find stillness and peace. This is Samahdi. From the peace and bliss of samahdi , we can witness our life without getting caught up in the circumference. From this place our hearts can truly open and live without fear. Samadhi is the doorway to Nirvana and liberation. The path from success to samahdi is through the fear and hell of the tornado to your center. In samahdi, you are not!

The Practicality of Our Oneness

Unitive Consciousness is the state of awareness describe by many sages , mystics , and enlightened masters of the past and present. In this state of spiritual awakening, you clearly perceive and feel the total oneness and unity of humanity and the universe. It is a remarkable experience that is felt at the core of your mind , heart , and being. It dramatically changes or transforms you forever!
However, most of humanity has never experienced this profound state of consciousness.Instead, they focus on the things that seemingly separate and isolate us turning our perception of life into a struggle to "get the most Out of life" even if it is at the expense of others!
Let us focus on the practical aspects of our oneness , or what I would call our common ground . This is not dependent on a spiritual experience or change in consciousness. We all share and walk the same earth . We all sleep and dream at night. We all have to eat and breath to survive. We all must put our clothes on and off, and use the restroom in basically the same way. We all feel the warmth and light of the sun in the day, and gaze at the moon and stars at night. We all see the beauty of the flowers in spring, and the brilliant colors of the trees in the fall. We all have a mind, heart, soul, and spirit. In essence we are all energy and basically the same. We are all one humanity! When we miss this reality, our minds are turning our perceived differences from the beautiful tapestry and variety of life into a conceptual illusion of seeming separation. This literally takes the life energy out of life. So instead of getting the most out of life , you separate yourself from the tremendous flow and energy the universe was created by and with. It is a sad state of affairs the we unconscuosly and literally turn ourselves into the walking dead in the spiritual sense. Look at this one more time and try to see our common ground!!!

The Transcendent Dimension

In Life we always have a choice. We can resist, fight, avoid, run from, attach to, enjoy, or transcend our circumstances. How we relate to Life is up to each of us. True freedom ,however, is only possible thru transcendence. How can we be transcendent and free? Transcendence is only possible in the place where there is no resistance and no attachment. It is the door into our eternal dimension, where our authentic self lives. And how do we find that door? Meditation is the path to find that door.It is the only path to Freedom!!!

Eternal Life

Eternal Life is not a gift from God for good behavior on the earth. Eternal Life is our birthright. It cannot be earned or taken away! All forms are born and die , temporal and everchanging. However, we arose from that which is never born and never dies. We arose from the Eternal Tao and we are Eternal. Even scientists confirm that energy cannot be destroyed , it can only be transformed. We are essentially energy that can and will be transformed , but will never die. Eternal Life is our birthright!

A Meditative Perspective

When most people think of meditation, they have an image of sitting in the lotus position on the floor and reciting a mantra like OM or following their breath as it goes in and out. There are also many other ways to bring you to a peaceful meditative state that combine breathing , humming, and moving . Yoga , Tai Chi, & Chi Gong are also ancient practices that facilitate meditation. One of the main purposes of meditation is to learn to just watch yourself , your thoughts , emotions , & sensations etc. The reason to just watch or become the witness of these aspects of your self , is to understand how to experience your life from a non-attached perspective. Your thoughts , feelings , emotions , and experiences are not the problem in and of themselves. It is the tendency to become attached to them and let them absorb all your consciousness , thereby making an identity that is separate from who you are out of them. A non-attached perspective does not mean fighting or repressing them. It is allowing them to be as they are fully, without being pulled into identification with them !
In addition to practicing various forms of meditation, this training or experience is meant to be brought into every aspect of your daily life and not left on the floor or at the yoga studio after you are finished. This is called living with a meditative perspective. By living in this way you can bring the energy of your deepest Self into all aspects of life. This is the joy of Being!!!

Which is Bigger >

Which is bigger ? Your mind or the Universe . That is an interesting question. Often when we think of ourselves in relation to the vast cosmos, we seem very very small and insignificant. In one sense part of that is true . We are a spark of Divine life flowing in the incredible ever expanding beauty of existence. However, to you and all other human beings, the universe arises within your mind. It is so. It cannot be otherwise ! Your mind contains all of life ! So how big, vast and deep are you ? There is something to meditate on !!!

Laughter

Where does laughter come from ? What is it's nature? To quote master OSHO who said" Laughter is the only true religion , Everything else is just metaphysics " says alot. When we truly laugh, we do so from our being center just below the navel. It does not come from the intellectual mind or from analytic thinking. It explodes from our deeper self. When we laugh together with others, it reveals the common ground or oneness of life. There is no room for superior or inferior here. It also creates a space or gap in our thinking , what Zen masters call no-mind ! It is extremely beneficial for our physical and emotional health , especially the lymphatic system as well. What a gift from Life that we can laugh.
When Gautam Buddha was looking for a successor that was enlightened and could carry on his work, he gathered many disciples in a large room. After many hours of serious and deep silence , the Buddha made a gesture with a flower to give to the chosen one. All the sudden one disciple began to laugh uncontrolably. The Buddha brought him to the front of the room, gave him the flower and said "You are my successor " The other disciples looked on with utter amazement.
This is the power and beauty of laughter !!!

Healing the Ego

Throughout history the spiritual aspirant of most faiths were required to recluse themselves from the world in order to undertake the perceived necessity to annihilate the ego in their path towards God. Although this may very well have been a necessary process or stage in the evolution of human consciousness, in today's world and environment, we can no longer afford to, nor is it necessary to adopt this approach. We are now at the stage as mystic Caroline Myss eloquently puts it " to resolve the paradox for the need for a strong and healthy ego and the still fundamental need to release the ego in order to experience God or the Higher Self ".On the surface this seems like an almost impossible contradiction to reconcile. How can we both strengthen our ego and at the same time release it or transcend it. In my view the ego itself is not the problem. It is the unhealthy ego that creates the void and separation from our basic divine nature and realty. This begs the question , what is a healthy and unhealthy ego ? An unhealthy ego which perplexes 99.9% of humanity, is based on the idea that our are fundamental identity is our ego. In other words it is confused about its role in the overall functioning of the human being. Thinking that it is the be all and end all of life itself , it is attached to things and tries to control or dominate our being. It has become ,and we have allowed it, to be a maniacal tyrant over us both individually and collectively. This happens on many subtle levels and reveals this disfunction when we face minor and major difficulties or challenges in our lives. It becomes very resistant to the perceived erosion of control and creates tremendous fear in defense of its territory. The healthy ego , which was created by life is one that functions in the role of servant and supporter of our deeper nature . So instead of blocking or distorting our aspirations to know ourselves at the essential level of heart and spiritual being , it would help point the way and lead us to that ultimate place within the depths of life itself. At this point we should focus our attention and energy on educating the ego of its true role and place , and make Friends with it. This seems like a much more healthy approach than the old days of total annihilation!!

Your Finances & Your Chakras

Some may wonder how the ancient yogic system of the chakras has any relation to money & finance. Doesn't the world of money revolve around economic factors and materialism , while the chakras are focused on spirituality and the human energy field ? On the surface this appears to be, however this assumption is based on a dualistic view of life that divides and compartmentalizes reality into seemingly polar opposites that are separate and many times at odds with each other. In my view this perspective is basically flawed for a number of reasons. Money is basically a concept or symbol for the things of this world , how we control or trade and exchange goods and services. However , on a deeper level money represents energy both symbolically and literally. Most humans are extremely emotional about their finances both in today's world as well as throughout history. One can vividly imagine many people jumping out of the windows on Wall street during the severe market crash in October of 1929. Wars and other political conflicts have basically centered around the control and distribution of financial resources and what that represents , land, trade, economic inequality, import / export, etc. On the level of the individual, if you look closely at your own experience, you can feel how real this connection is. The energy of money affects our chakra system dramatically. This is espscially true for our first or root chakra, which represents our energetic metabolism of issues related to our physical survival and security. The energy from the root charka , which is connected to the earth energy that sustains all life on the planet, then influences all the other chakras , but especially the second or sacral chakra, and the third or solar plexus chakra. These first three are where the energetic metabolism takes place related to our physical bodies and human emotional health. If one is experiencing financial difficulties, working only on the mental level in devising solutions to these issues is like treating the symptoms of the disease and not the deeper root causes which usually exists on the emotional and psychological level. A more holistic solution would include therapy the integrates all aspects of healing on the energetic system of the chakras. Helping the person balance and harmonize their chakra energy as it relates to their finances could help not only with the current situation, but also help in preventing reocurrances in the future. Life and human beings are one organic system including the financial system the we have created . The health of the individual has a direct impact on the overall health of our financial system in so many ways. I believe the holistic or non-dual approach to our finances is not only important, but vital to the current and future health of our economic system.

A Separate Security

Do we really need a separate security ? Most human beings on the planet put a great deal of time and energy trying to survive and and create security on many levels. This comes from a basically flawed assumption that existence itself has not ensured our basic survival and security already. It comes from the belief that we are separate from life and live in a hostile world where we have to compete or fight over limited resources . The ancient Taoists sages had a different perspective. They taught that man/woman were the connection or synapse between heaven and earth. They taught that life is a balance of two polar energies ( yin & yang) and we are not separate from those energies . We are connected and part of the flow of life !! If existence has created us as well as all of the natural world and cosmos , which it sustains in all the abundant forms we perceive as well as those we do not, then why not so for human beings? Is this perceived separation true and accurate or is it a basic flaw in our beliefs and thinking? All of life is one ! We really don't need a separate security! It is a basic lack of trust in life that it has already and will provide for our needs that drives this flaw in our perception. It is why at all levels we see a dramatic imbalance in resources throughout the world. This not only affects the world economy, it also affects all aspects ; politics, crime , social issues , hunger , disease , etc.
Maybe the ancient Taoists masters knew something we could all learn from. Life is abundant!!
Heaven's energy is above us , Mother Earth's is below us . Hell is living only in the egoic mind!

Two Kinds of Sleep

We are all familar with the reality of falling asleep every night. All of humanity shares this experience without exception. However, even with all the new scientific discoveries and new technologies , scientists and doctors still don't understand sleep very well. Where do we go when we sleep? What is the nature and reality of dreams? Where is our consciousness in dreamless sleep?These are still questions that remain a mystery.
Let's now look at another kind of sleep that is even more difficult to understand. I'm talking about spiritual sleep. What is spiritual sleep? It is a metaphor used in many spiritual traditions for humanities lack of conscious awareness regarding the nature and experience of reality. Even while we are awake physically our minds are usually drifting and dreaming somewhere else. We are not present in the here and now. There is a screen of thoughts , labels , and mental noise that obscure and cloud up are ability to see things as they are. We view reality through a filter of past and future mind projection which blocks our clear perception of the world and more importantly our own essential nature at the core of our being. Another name for this is being spiritually unconscious. Most often we react and relate to our reality with mechanical and conditioned responses that are unconscious mental patterns we have learned from childhood on. Some of these patterns are part of a colective unconsciousness shared by most humans which of course we are unaware of. This is why most eastern spiritual traditions describe the spiritual path as an awakening of conscious awareness from the slumber of spiritual unconsciousness. The word buddha means "awake" or "awakened one". It means they have realized their own basic essential inner nature of full consciousness or buddha nature, and can see reality as it is. The Buddha called it "suchness" .
Of the two kinds of sleep, understanding and awakening from the spiritual slumber has meaning for all of us. This is the essential mission of all religion and spirituality. When we die the need for physical sleep will end . The real question is whether we will be spiritually awake or will continue to let our consciousness remain fast asleep without recognizing and awakening to who we are.

Finding Balance & Harmony

As human beings , we exist in two dimensions, the spiritual and the physical. As such it is important to understand, realize , and master both. This apparent duality may look like competing poles , or in conflict with each other, however this is really not the case. When we emphasize one by denying the other , we split ourselves into two polarities creating stress and discord. As eloquently stated in the teachings of the Tao, these seemingly polarities are actually complimentary. As also taught in many tantric paths , it is by accepting the whole of existence and moving through the physical plane by feeling and experiencing all of life's energies , can spiritual growth and liberation truly be! This was the teaching of the Buddha ( the middle way )
which is based on balance , peace and harmony. It is our task and challenge to realize this for ourselves. May you truly find that balance !!!

Being Present in the Now

Life is only Now !!! It is never not Now . The question is where is your consciousness? Is it totally aligned with life in this moment ? Does it stay present in the Now ? If not , how can you re-align your being and consciousness back to life? First you must clearly understand what obstacles prevent you from being present. The first one is your own thinking which wants to dominate and absorb all your consciousness. The second is suppessed emotional pain from the past which is stuck in your memories and resurfaces from time to time as fear , anxiety, or pain both emotional and physical. These obstacles are not easily overcome by simple techniques devised by the mind. Fortunately since you are connected to and a part of Life itself , it understands and will help you with these obstacles. It will give you challenges and life situations that if properly accepted and allowed to be as they are without resistance, will push you deeper and deeper into Presence. The basic practice is to allow this moment to be and surrender completely. In other words , no emotional separation to the form this moment takes no matter how challenging! This sounds simple. However, in reality it can be very difficult depending on the magnitude of the challenge Life presents in this moment. So no matter what happens , try to allow and embrace the form of this moment completely, then respond and take action or not out of full consciousness not out of the conditioned reaction of the ego mind. This will help you be in the Now, which is Life itself !!!

Depression

Many people throughout the world suffer from depression. It is a living hell for many as it sucks the joy and will to live out of their lives. The basic cause is the gap between what they expect to happen in their life and what actually does happen. This can come about in two ways. If there is a strong , future based , expectation of what they think will happen which turns out differently, or for many , when the current circumstances of life pile up on them to such a degree that they mentally breakdown and cannot process the stress level it has created . Either way, this gap is the cause of suffering and turns into depression in the extreme form. There is fundamentally one way to deal with this problem. The person must totally accept the life circumstances as they are and emotionally digest them . If there is any resistance to life as it is, the problem of depression will stick and not be resolved. It sounds like an easy solution , however in practice it can be extremely difficult to go through. It is in a way a kind of ego death when a person goes through this. In a very real sense the person feels as if a part of them is dying. They have to remember the part they feel is not their true divine essence which never dies and cannot be destroyed. It is the illusory self that feels the sting of ego death. Ultimately, this is spiritually healthy if the person can surrender to the suchness or isness of life as the Buddha said . This doesn't mean that a person cannot change his circumstances if they are not pleasant or painful. However, first must come acceptance and alignment with life so there is no disconnection from lifes energy. Then a conscious response can be planned and executed to try to change things for the better. If this is done with awareness and consciousness then it is fine. If it is an unconscious reaction based on negative emotion, it is likely that the situation will not change and could get worse. Being totally aligned with life as it is can be the best remedy for depression. Allowance, acceptance, and surrender are helpful tools on this process. Try this approach and see what happens !

Preparing The Ground

In today's active and busy world our minds tend to become cluttered with thoughts, emotions, and things to do. This creates a certain movement and momentum in our stream of mental activity that is hard to slow down. Most of us think it is important and necessary to engage in thinking and doing from the moment we awake till the time our head hits the pillow at night. We then many times still have active mental activity in our dreams as well, only to wake and proceed to pick up the action where we left off the day before. Just as our physical body needs rest and time to re-energize , our mind and spirit need time to rest as well. This is meditation !
Meditation is a vacation for the mind. It is time to clear out all the mental activity and clutter that is sometimes bordering on addiction , and become aware of the space of consciousness without thought that is the essence of who we are. This is the fundamental spiritual identity crisis of humanity. However, meditation is not easy if you are trying to go from the mind of obsessive thinking and doing to a peaceful meditative state in one step. You must first prepare the groung for this transition. This can be done by a number of means which include any kind of physical activity such as yoga, shaking, dancing , jumping followed by stillness either sitting or lying down in complete motionless position. This is called active meditation ! Another type of preparation is through the use of sound such as mantra chanting, Tibetan bells or bowls, the sound of falling rain or other meditative music. These stepping stones can help you transition from the clatter of a noisy mind to the sublime peace and bliss of deep meditation where you can get to know your own being at the essential level !!! It is truly worth the trouble !

The Masters

To my beloved Masters my heart is beyond gratitude. You have touched my soul at the very core. I feel your presence in every aspect of my life. Jesus , Osho, and Lao Tsu , my internal guides of spirit, you have helped me so much to realize the blessing of eternal life and the spiritual birthright of divine creation. Thank you!!! To my living master Khan Ba Da. You came like a thief in the night without a sign. Through your heart of boundless compassion , you have opened the way to the great ocean of one divine life. As the illusory mind dissolves, and real soul blossoms, please remember , I am eternally grateful to you for giving me this treasure that has changed my life forever. It's value has no equal in the world of things. It is the blessing that words cannot describe. No matter where the Tao leads us both in the future, we are one in spirt and heart, eternally bound through the love and life of heaven! Let it be now and forever !!!