Storms in our teacups

   I have been pondering the nature of thought-habits, addictions of all kinds, and the need for chaos in our lives. To be able to experience the full control of our thought life, we must also take a look at what it is that feeds our addictions. It would seem that a circle of addiction/chaos/relieving chaos through the indulgence of addiction is primarily a lack of mind control.

   Science has picked up on the chemical changes that happen in the brain during various activities. It has also noted that a change in mind has the same effect as introducing foreign chemicals into the body. The phenomenon is also noted in the so-called placebo effect. Meditation/breathing exercises also produce a reaction of chemicals in the brain.
   So what does that have to do with my first statements? Clearly when we are addicted to a particular state of mind (anger, fear, jealousy, et al.), we need a system in place to insure that we can indulge in the "fix". We "need" to have a "reason" to allow our self to partake in the same way a smoker "needs" a cigarette!  Chaos in our lives allows us to justify having these addictions. Chaos leads to feelings, which leads to thoughts of fixing the unpleasant feelings, and then completes itself by indulging in the addictive act. 
   A good case point would be to look at the cycle of a smoker. Nicotine only affects the body for approximately twenty minutes and then the body starts craving more. There is enough residual of the drug in the body to keep the full blown cravings away for another hour or so, but our smoker starts to feel jittery. The feed-back mechanism in the mind-body loop is in place for our survival, but it can be hi-jacked in this way. Now thoughts are produced that start to lead the person to the fulfillment of the cycle, namely, "smoke so we can feel better". Chaos comes into play by an event being needed to force the issue if we haven't voluntarily submitted to the cravings. "So and so just really pissed me off, I need a smoke to calm down" etc., etc. 
   In the above example of the smoker, if you were to insert any undesirable habit, including emotional ones, you can see in yourself and others how this plays out. The hard part of changing our lives lies in the breaking of these habits which are reinforced by the brain chemistry itself! We have to use the mind that is "sick" to cure ourselves. Sounds like a double-bind, but the Creator has made possible a way for us to work this out. We work on changing our minds until that new habit takes over due to starving the old ones!
   So if you find yourself in one of those cycles where things seem a little out of control, look inside for the part you are playing in bringing chaos to yourself. Look for the "reward" you get for the chaos being present and when you do the key to unraveling that particular little problem will be very clear! Should the problem be outside of your total control, as some problems are, this exercise will allow you to strengthen yourself and not buffeted as much by the circumstances presently before you. This technique is more for rooting out the storms we create for ourselves, and to live more peaceably in ourselves!
peace and blessings to you!  

More than you think you are!

Good-day!

    It is my intention for all my readers to be well centered and experiencing growth in their lives! Now some may think, "that's a nice statement, but I am living in reality where wishin' and hopin' just don't cut it!" Well, today I am going to give you an exercise to help along with the centering exercise I shared a while back. It is really simple to do, but like Truth, it is profound in its implication and practice! Then you will have some idea why I send intention!
    The principle is called Extend. I learned of it in Yiliquan class. Now knowing what to look for, I have found its idea in every religion, self-help book/program, and ideology. I believe it is one of those universal principles the Creator wove into the fabric of life. As such, it is neutral but can be used in positive and negative ways. I find it odd that everything is reducible to two choices, don't you!
    I am convinced that even having the idea of mind-over-matter is an outlook of dis-order and dis-unity! Extend is exemplary of mind with matter. The principle states that: Where your mind/will/intention goes, your internal energy goes and that your body wants to follow. Now the body does not have to follow, but it wants to. What does all that mean?! Simply put, when you really hold out an idea of some kind, the energy of life (Chinese call Chi/Qi) follows where you are "extending" your mind to and the body has a natural inclination to want to do what you are thinking of! Cool, how the heck do I put that into practical use!? I'm glad you asked. You'll need a partner you can trust to help you in this, and while you are at it let them do it too! Okay, step by step here goes:
1. Hold your arm out straight in front of you.
2. Imagine that your arm is a ghost arm or made from rubber and can stretch as far as you will it to.
3. Your partner will hold your wrist from the bottom and put their hand in the elbow crease with the idea of bending your hand back towards your shoulder. They can press into your elbow crease and push on your wrist at the same time to try to accomplish this!
4. On the first try you will with all your muscular strength (but without moving your body around) try to resist them bending your arm. Do this for a few seconds and then both parties relax. Your partner is to note the level of muscular tension they feel in your arm!
5a. Set up as before but this time instead of using your muscles to fight/resist your partner, you will simply extend your Mind by imagining your arm grows longer and longer, through the walls, down the street, keep imaging the whole time that your arm keeps extending away from you further and further each second.
5b. While you are imagining 5a your partner will attempt to bend your arm again but will find they are unable to. Just keep extending while they are trying to bend your arm (without struggling against them physically) and you will find them struggling with all their might to bend your arm but can't!
    After you have done this give your partner a turn. Then spend some time thinking about what just happened there and some implications that it might have. Reread my opening to this post and I'll give you a few days to mull it over and will give some insights next posting.

Be well and talk with you soon!

Clutter and a clean mind

Hi all!
    I am in the midst of rearranging house and bedroom and was struck by the connections of cleaning and our habits/thoughts! I have noticed that when our external environment is in a state of chaos that a good portion of the time our mental life is unkempt as well, or a portion of it. 
    I have to admit in all honesty to being a sloppy-clean freak. What, you say?! It is true. I love a clean, well ordered environment as I feel more aligned, productive and less stressed! There is a part of me though that gets in a hurry and doesn't always maintain that order. I will end up throwing things on a counter or shelf and before I know it, wham, clutter abounds. Well, I tell myself, you are just really busy and it is okay for the moment. The lie I was telling myself is that momentary lacks of discipline are okay because I will get "to it" when I have time. I literally started laughing today at that fallacy as I hit hour number two of "getting around to it when I have time"!
    I just had to come and blog this as I realized that the more disordered my environment had become that the more my life was becoming disordered as well. Things just having been going as smooth lately. I didn't have as much "time" to do things, and I was becoming stressed about it. So as I tidy up my house and get rid of or straighten out the clutter I am looking at my thoughts as well for tell-tale signs of not keeping order there as well. As you probably guessed already, there are things I am supposed to be doing and have dropped the ball! The best thing is the time frame to recognize these little errors is getting shorter the more I work on myself and the curve to get back to the straight-and-narrow is getting more like a line than a circle.
    As a martial artist I strive to maintain the highest levels of discipline. When my environment is showing signs of clutter, I know that I am losing some discipline and it is time to kick it in the rear again. While relating this to a friend of mine, he was perplexed at my connecting a messy room to my overall outlook and mastery of life. I tried to explain it to him with little success. He thought I was being a little extreme! Now, he is a very intelligent person and it was my turn to be perplexed at his statement. I tried to explain to him how we are connected beings, and nothing happens in a vacuum. Something that happens to one part of me affects the whole because the idea of "parts" of us is illusion. Think back to the last time you had something as benign as a stuffy nose. Now really think about how your whole life was affected from just your nose. It is a relatively small part of you overall, yes?! Now think about how your work suffered, sleep suffered, maybe your intimacy with your significant other, social life, etc. Just that little stuffy nose brought changes to life because nothing happens in and of itself! 
    I'll leave you today with these ideas and to have you look for synchronicity in all that you do, Body/Mind/Spirit!

Balance and The Art of Living

Geez, I can hardly believe that two weeks has passed so quickly!
Some lessons learned since I last wrote...

It is far easier to lose balance when focus goes awry.
Must be sensitive to how new situations will affect the balance of life.
What am I working towards, ultimately?

Those who aren't in my daily circle don't know that I tried to work two jobs Monday through Friday. One started at seven in the morning until early evening and then another started at ten in the evening until early morning. I foolishly thought that once I  was used to the routine that I could still train, teach, do my spiritual work, plus enjoy some breathing room in my finances! Wow did that go to pieces pretty quickly (I have to chuckle at my exuberance and lack of foresight!). I survived for two weeks and then noticed that, I am not doing anything but sleeping and working! No teaching, training or otherwise. My balance had slipped in one direction at the expense of all else I hold dear.
A friend emailed and I was excited as I has purchased a cd set from Dr. Wayne Dyer and wanted to share with him. I quickly ran to the bedroom to collect the set and noticed the title a little more closely.
I laughed out loud, and returned this message. "Amazing the ironic sense of humor that Spirit possesses, isn't it?!" He laughed in the affirmative and I knew then and there that I must give up the second job! I just needed a little reminder to keep pursuing what is most important. Let Spirit show me the right way to earn a living while still walking the path that has brought me this far!
The rest of the title states to create habits that match desires! Since my desires are for truth and skill in the truth then I rest knowing that my desires will be in line with Spirit, and when they get out of tune then the little messages come. Sometimes the voice of God isn't what we think. Best wishes for you is my intention today, and that you walk in the balance and peace of God!

The root of evil

Not talkin' about money here :-)

Defining "evil" is a very personal judgment, except those things which are written on everyone's heart as the great evils. The evils I am referring to are those thing we judge from a perspective unchallenged. A racial thought still lingering from something your grandfather said, looking down on people who are from "the wrong side of the tracks", occupations to engage in because of the social network our families had, a fear that your relative had, ad nauseum. These are thoughts that we indulge in and allow to subtly railroad our direction without the benefit of choice. If you hear yourself saying something to the effect of, "gosh, I don't know why I [insert phrase here]" then there is a chance to look at the reason for your un-mindfulness. I hear people say that constantly and laugh about it, but they never really look at why that they do/think such things or why it is okay to be that conditioned! We as Americans totally pride ourselves on the notion of personal freedom (and rebellion when appropriate) but to do introspection of any kind is to a large part looked upon as weak, or new-age mumbo-jumbo (especially for the guys). Can you be free when you are so conditioned that most of your actions are so ingrained and sub-conscious that you don't even realize when you are being that way? The reason for the 21 day exercise I had us do was to become aware of ourselves to a greater degree. We are what we think! That is the reality of life. We dress, eat, act, react, love, work, play based entirely on our minds direction. The body can only follow the mind - it is a fallacy that it can be the other way around! That implies existence to be a state of our Mind in the physical world. Seeing these things and working towards the integration of that knowledge into action is what really gets me excited! The only problem is that victim-hood cannot abide in this place of living because that puts someone else in charge of YOUR mind! Exciting isn't it, but scary too because now we have to do our own living and accept those ugly sides of us that we have placed into the victim/blame box. So the choice is to shrink back into amusements to try to silence that nagging little voice inside letting us know that we are running away from this responsibility, or to quit feeling sorry for ourselves and enjoy the process of getting back to the place that we have been at all along, but forgot that we are there.
peace, and blessings

Great Quotes!

A little food for thought!

There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination.  Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic.  ~Anaïs Nin

When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard," I am always tempted to ask, "Compared to what?"

- Sydney J. Harris

One must work and dare if one really wants to live.

- Vincent van Gogh

 

Life is meaningless only if we allow it to be. Each of us has the power to give life meaning, to make our time and our bodies and our words into instruments of love and hope.

- Tom Head

Live every act fully, as if it were your last.

- Buddha

Without some goal and some effort to reach it, no one can live.

- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Everything is based on mind, is led by mind, is fashioned by mind. If you speak and act with a polluted mind, suffering will follow you, as the wheels of the oxcart follow the footsteps of the ox. Everything is based on mind, is led by mind, is fashioned by mind. If you speak and act with a pure mind, happiness will follow you, as a shadow clings to a form.

- Buddha

Each of us literally chooses, by his way of attending to things, what sort of universe he shall appear to himself to inhabit.

- William James 

The basic thing is that everyone wants happiness, no one wants suffering. And happiness mainly comes from our own attitude, rather than from external factors. If your own mental attitude is correct, even if you remain in a hostile atmosphere, you feel happy.

- Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama 

 The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.

- Carlos Castaneda

These are some great quotes that I have saved and hope they bless you as they have me!! 

What's the Point!?

Good-day & I hope that all is well with you!

   In going through the exercise from my last post and reflecting on all that we try to accomplish in this endeavor, I am confronted with a stark reality. Questions arise and the path seems bleak at times, as I am sure you've found during your time. The reality is that even with all we learn, we may be in a fruitless pursuit of perfection that never will come. I then realized, it doesn't matter! The trying is the important thing and that we are the better for the doing. In training martial arts we are brought before this very altar. We struggle towards a goal that will forever elude us. When I was younger this brought no end to the feelings of despair but through the training I have come to realize that this is the point. Training, struggling, sweating, meditating, and learning to enjoy that process. Realize that you are already stronger just for the effort put forth in the retraining of your Mind! When feelings of despair, depression and hopelessness arise realize that these are the old ways being purged and the new thought-habits taking their place. Have joy in the midst of this (un-reasonable happiness, yes!) and put forth a renewed effort. Practice the exercise of getting Center that we went over a few posts ago until you feel your strength pour forth again. Extend your Mind and energy to the goal you have before you and don't let go!
   
To live remains an art which everyone must learn, and which no one can teach.  ~Havelock Ellis 
 

I had a dream...

    All of us have had dreams during some part of our life. Some have been silly, but still fun and others were serious but we just didn't manage to pull them off. There's a saying that goes whom the gods would make great, they first make to suffer! I think that this is profound as we look to change how we think about the world. I 've heard it said that no one is bigger than their greatest think. Obviously it is not the ordinary "think" but the deepest level ordering of our mind/belief systems (non-religious). The more our five-senses are involved with the ideas we have the more likely they are to succeed because we think-feel them (go back to earlier posts to see why this is important). I say this because the self-help market is LOADED with "Easy ways to master yourself" type programs and unfortunately this is not the case. The more deeply embedded a thought-habit is, the "harder" it will be to change as there's is a whole mind-body shift that happens. There are withdrawal symptoms as well because the very biochemical systems will have to change to adopt the new ways of being! Nothing we do/feel/think happens in a vacuum as our entire being is, well, connected.

     So this week I am going to write down the biggest obstacle in Mind and read aloud the desired outcome as I do it, you too! Then post in your own handwriting your "goal" and touch the paper, read aloud, and then visualize yourself as the "new" you. Put it around the house in several places so that wherever you go you can take a second to do an affirmation. We are going to do this for 21 days as the best research I can find says that a new habit is firmly ingrained biochemically after that time and after that is the refining of the neuropathways and chemical structure of the cells with the new receptors. It will be uncomfortable at first because when we change habits the old neuro-net/cell receptors aren't going to get their "fix" of chemicals from the old thought-habits. If you have ever gave up an addiction you know how that feels...oh well, we gotta do it :-)! Now we aren't going to become totally enlightened after this but the more we do this, the closer we get. Then we won't be in the way of the dreams and goals we have for ourselves, but will instead be in The Way!

have a great week and feel free to email me with any comments/questions as I love to discuss and work on this with other Seekers.

Unreasonable Happiness

Good day and glad to be back!

I apologize for being off so long. I was thinking about a book I read about a year ago and reflecting on the message. Our hero was being mentored by a sage and during a particularly stressful time the young man was admonished to "be unreasonably happy. But," protested the hero, "how can I be happy when x,y, and z are happening to me?!" There is the crucial point. These "things" are happening to him, but are not him. We can't control what comes to us, only how we respond to the stimulus the events provide. Only if we allow the circumstances to go inside and become us can they affect our minds. This is not to say that the feelings of stress and anxiety won't come. This is biochemically programmed into our existence, but to choose to stay in the feelings and not use them as impetus toward action is where we ere. Emotions give us the fuel to action and become toxic when we don't act on the stimulus towards growth. Sitting and stewing activates the mechanisms of action but when none is taken produce the same stress as the actual event but to no conclusion! So practice being unreasonably happy in the face of circumstances and you will find a more peaceful means to dealing with the events before you and see more clearly how to proceed. Do not worry about feeling silly at this at first as it goes against the usual re-actions we have programmed ourselves in. This is not an exercise in denial as you don't deny the circumstances or pretend they are not there, but instead realize that staying upbeat will bear fruit in peace and productive activity!

Be well and unreasonably happy!
See you next time...

Centering...an exercise!

Today I'd like to share an exercise I use in my martial arts training (YiLiQuan Kung-Fu). It is used to center yourself and to calm breathing, emotions, and runaway thoughts to what we call "Move from One-Point". When you first start to practice this you will want to be somewhere quiet so you can focus. In time you will be able to do this on the fly!

To begin we are going to find our physical center. The Chinese refer to this as a dantien, while in YiLi we call it One-Point (same thing, different name!). Find the place that is three finger widths below and two finger widths behind the navel. This is the physical center of the body, and where we direct a portion of awareness when breathing.

1. Go ahead and sit someplace comfortably. Keep the back straight but not stiff.
2. With your finger poking into dantien comfortably just breathe in & out in a relaxed way. Don't hold the breath but slow it down into a nice, even in/out rhythm.

Just keep poking into dantien enough to keep your mind focused down there and keep breathing steadily, easily until you feel a sense of calm overtake you. If it helps to close your eyes go ahead and do so. I will sometimes play relaxing music to block out unwanted noise, and some incense is nice but not necessary. This first stage is to just get you used to breathing steadily and focusing your mind on a certain point. We will use this as part of our arsenal to overcome our over-emotional selves!

   Practice this some everyday and I'll be sharing more of this technique. We'll blend this with our thought training and in time become very strong, calm people. More next time!
Mind Your Way, 
                      love - wayfarer

Inspiration

I just wanted to share a quick quote with you today. As I read it I smiled and wish for you the same!

In all human affairs there are efforts, and there are results, and the strength of the effort is the measure of the result. It is not chance. So-called "gifts", powers, material, intellectual, and spiritual possessions are the fruits of effort; they are thoughts completed, objects accomplished, visions realized. The vision that you glorify in your mind, the ideal that you enthrone in your heart - this you will build your life by, and this you will become. -James Allen, "As A Man Thinketh"

Keep up the good fight for your mind and the self-control that you will be possessed of! I think this is a gift from The One - our ability to have the Mind of God in us when we endeavor to live in our higher selves.
peace in the Mind of The Way!
                                          -wayfarer

"Feeling" small

Good day!

   Did you do the recommended "homework" from the last post?! It takes continuous effort to dig out the mental dross. Refining our thought-habits won't happen overnight but every effort tells the subconscious that we are moving in a new direction! In the end it will be so worthwhile!
    I shall continue the story from when I was seven. The thought not to trust people started a "seed" in Mind that slowly started to grow. I continuously watered this Seed with more thoughts, and fertilized it with negative emotions. I looked at the world not as it was but how I perceived it to be. The Buddha said, "We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world." Our world is actually our perceptions! This is the Illusion that the great spiritual teachers warned about. Now, mind you, I am not referring to the actual physical world. My world became one of distrust, abuse, fear, and all manner of evil because that is how I thought about it. The consequence of all this was a continual descent into isolation. I couldn't see the good in people. There was always an ulterior motive (I thought anyway) to be found. There actually wasn't but the events leading up to this point "convinced" me of the fact! So you can see how runaway thoughts lead to a certain type of madness, and we're all doing this to ourselves in one way or another! As a person thinks, so they become.
    This week let us take action against one emotional-thought-habit that we indulge. There is one particular way that we re-act to the world. Be Mindful and every time that arises, stop it. This will be difficult at first. The thing I did to overcome was to immediately tell my mind to stop, this is not how I am going to be now and would replace it with the thought of how I wanted to be now! I know it might sound silly (I certainly felt silly at first) but persevere and you will be rewarded with some peace in that area. The emotional impact of the thought-habit will lessen in time and you WILL start to see things more clearly!
Mind your Way, and I wish you all the best! 

Nothing to Fear, Except...?

Good day and welcome back!

"There is a way of bringing up the child of a samurai. From the time of infancy one should encourage bravery and avoid trivially frightening or teasing the child. If a person is affected by cowardice as a child, it remains a lifetime scar. It is a mistake for parents to thoughtlessly make their children dread lightning, or to have them not go into dark places, or to tell them frightening things in order to stop them from crying. Furthermore, a child will become timid if he is scolded severely".    Yamamoto Tsunetomo

   I have chosen to open today's blog with a quote from Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai because it so aptly describes what happens when we are young. Today I would ask that you look back at events that colored your perception of the world through the eyes of fear. When you find that one event that Changed Your Mind...look at how it is still with you today. Like I said yesterday, do not try to relive the moment, just look at it much like you would a movie. Your job, as it were, is to merely observe because if you cannot see then you cannot change yourself. Now when that is clear, you are going to observe yourself over the next week and see exactly how you behave once emotional-thought-habit takes over because, you see, at that moment you are out of mind. Emotional-thought-habits (and it takes over you in exactly that way) drive your actions before you have the chance to Be. So it is a chance to observe and see how you are re-acting. I purposefully chose the hyphen because, as I discovered during my re-formation, it shows how you are acting out all over again those times that were imprinted on you so strongly. You are not living right now, but in a past that no longer exists! So observe your self, and watch what is happening now because of the past and tomorrow we'll go over ways to re-form our selves!

Until tomorrow, mind your Way

Living Now

Welcome back!
I hope all is well with you today...

Yesterday I was talking with you about events from early childhood shaping our thoughts and future behaviors. I really want to emphasize the idea of NOT reliving or re-experiencing our childhoods. We must examine them for the times where we made those Mind-altering emotional decisions. Thought-events that were so strong that the very idea is still with us today, coloring our Now. Don't ignore them for that's when we are blinded to the effect we have on ourselves. Let us just be aware of what/where/when/why happened, then we'll set a course to change our Mind.
Here is a book that really helped me in the process Psycho-Cybernetics, A New Way to Get More Living Out of Life.
until next time...mind your Way

Finding the Way

Good day and I hope that all is well with you!

   Today I'd like to share a little of the genesis of my search for wholeness and truth. From the time I can remember I have always felt there to be a higher power. I'll refer to this as The One from now on. I grew up in the Judeo-Christian belief system so I called it God for the longest time (I don't believe it matters the title you give as none of these can encompass what The One is!). This sufficed for my little seven year old mind. I really felt the oneness with The One. This is about the time that the Mind starts to exert influence in our lives. We start to see cause and effect even though we're not really aware of the profound implications it has. I distinctly remember having situations that I "knew" would permanently affect my life...but not having the wisdom to know how. I just had knowledge at that point, and I feel that this knowledge was from The One. A case in point would be from an incident that happened when I was seven years old and going to yet another school (Dad was in the military so obviously we moved a lot...more on that later). I had always been an outgoing kid and made friends easily. This year was no exception but as kids get older they start the usual  gamut of teasing/bullying. There were two kids that really, really took a disliking to me. No problem,as this wasn't the first time this had happened, but it was the first time that my friends were influenced and decided to join in with these guys instead of having my back. Whoa did this blow my little mind away! Unfortunately I decided (with intense emotion behind it...that's THE important thing) to not trust people as much and to not let anyone get too close again. Imagine that! At only seven, making a decision that would have such far reaching implications on the rest of my life/mind. In that moment a small voice told me that this would affect me permanently. I can now only attribute this to The One. I couldn't have possibly known this otherwise. The emotions that I felt were so strong as to have lifelong blinders put up in my mind.
   I'll end my post for the day. I really want you to think about the affect that your emotions have on your thoughts. I hope this get's you to think and examine yourself. Tomorrow I'll continue. Until then...


Be well and mind your way!