Reflections for the New Year

For most of us, reality can be a very scary thing. There is so much that needs to be done in this life, taking care of ourselves, paying the bills, taking the trash out and all the rest. Life isn’t always easy; there are a lot of things that we would love to skip: the dreaded dental appointments, the dreaded job and the dreaded chores. No wonder we love a good movie, a good book, a good vacation. Escape and distraction seem like our greatest friends many times. Few of us want to face the reality of taking full responsibility.

The irony is that we are sold stories of the possibility of a type of happiness that is supposedly permanent. This is where it’s important to remember the common saying that points to a flaw in the human psyche: “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.”

It is so tempting to fall for the trap of believing that other human beings have it a lot better than we do. We fall for believing that those with fame and riches have it a lot better than we do, but with just a little investigation and deeper analysis we can see that this is simply not so. The examples of individuals with fame, money and power who are not happier than you and I are many, in fact, it is not even necessary or important to list them, look and find out for yourself. Check out any magazine or newspaper and you will find that the stories of extremely unhappy celebrities are not lacking.

Sure money, power and recognition are nice, they can certainly be a big part of an individual’s happiness, but such things do not guarantee happiness.

Happiness, if such a thing even exists, is a state of balance and equilibrium, it is a sense of maturity and clarity that can only be achieved when our heads and hearts are working together. Our outer lives are an expression of what is inside of us, which is why most of the work we need to do is internal.

What do I really, really want should be the question. As simple as it might seem, if we take this question to profound depths we will find that it is a lot more involving than we might think. I am sure, most if not all of us, will say money. And sure, money can bring about a lot of goodies and a lot of order – but what do we want the money for?

To get money, I am sure most of us know, we have to work hard. It’s the way the world has been set up, unless you are one of those extremely rare cases that come by it in an easy way. But even that ease has a price. Easy comes, easy goes they say – and as much as we might like things that we want coming easy, we hate things leaving easy.

In the world everything operates in duality: there is night and day, black and white, happy and sad, good and bad, right and wrong, simple and complicated, sick and healthy, alive and dead. Everything is subject to the law of relativity and duality, laws are laws.

No matter how much we want to hold on to any one side of duality, the other side is around the corner. Today’s wonderful marriage can easily turn into tomorrow’s sour divorce, today’s wonderful accomplishment may turn into tomorrow’s horrible failure. I do not say these things to be negative, I say them to be realistic, again consult your nearest magazine or newspaper and you will see what I am talking about.

Whether we like it or not there is an order to life. Cycles of birth and death are realities. A dependent child will eventually have to become an independent adult, and whether we cling to the past or not, time does what it does with all of us and with everything. Resisting the ongoing movement of life is futile. We are all moving forward with life. As a blade of grass grows outside so do we, and growth need not be seen as something scary or bad.

I will speak for myself when I say that I have been clinging to the past and growing really slowly, but the reality is that time doesn’t forgive any of us. Time will turn our young, beautiful, healthy and strong bodies into old, weaker and less capable people. This is why youth is not to be taken for granted. Ask either of your grandparents if you’re lucky enough to still have them around.

I always get the same advice from elderly people: don’t take you life for granted, enjoy your life responsibly.

It’s not that old age is a bad thing, as far as I’m concerned the collection of experiences and the wisdom gained are beautiful things, the integrated phase of resting and being less active to rest for all the years of hard work is a beautiful thing, and the legacy one leaves behind as the years pass is something that is wonderful.

If it wasn’t for my grandparents, I wouldn’t be here writing… and if it wasn’t for me, all the things that I have created would have not been on earth. I have created many things, both good and bad, like all of us. I have written many wonderful articles, inspired many people and worked in a lot of different capacities, all the work that I have done has created an impact. The times that I have been an asshole have left a crappy mess and the times that I’ve been an angel have left a beautiful trail of love and positive growth.

Sure I am only twenty-six, but if I am lucky, one day I will be eighty and all of the things that I have done so far will go on my life resume. What do you want your life resume to look like?

Life, whether we are ready to see it or not is a wonderful gift, it is a wonderful bag of opportunities. The greatest gift we have is the gift of choice, the gift of free will. What do you want to do with your free will? What do you want to build or destroy with it? Some things are worth building and some things are worth destroying. Love, selflessness, care, education, art and help are worth building while hate, envy, greed, ignorance and egocentrism are worth destroying.

Abraham Lincoln with the help of many helped to destroy the institution of slavery; this was a destruction that was worthwhile. You and I can destroy the institutions of fear, doubt, cynicism and despair within us. As we do that we are more and more free to choose to build the life we want for ourselves: a healthy body, a nice income, a beautiful home and family and a wonderful life. We can move on and take this gift of life as a precious possession that we are blessed to have.

These tasks may not be easy, but they are worthwhile, and just as easy comes easy goes, what comes about difficultly will go away difficultly. We can all build a life that we are proud of, we can all face our fears and overcome them, we can all be all that we are, if we are just willing.

May the year 2011 inspire you to heed the advice of the elders: to not take life and youth for granted and to enjoy life responsibly! All the best to all of you!

THANK YOU: more and more and more gratitude

A Multidimensional Thank You from the bottom, the middle and the top of my Whole Heart:

To God - for being the Almighty, the Highest. For being everywhere at all times, for being unconditional, infinite and eternal with all Your love. For being humble, fierce and the most amazing and unconditionally loving Mystery. Wow!

To my Higher Self - for being able to recognize what really is important, for being there every instant of my existence, for being so bright, creative, bold, brave, intelligent, fresh, strong and radical. For never giving up, for never settling for less than the whole truth, for not allowing me to be at peace until I get it, for being my greatest teacher, my greatest sword.

To Mami - for giving birth to me and being crazy and wonderful, for breastfeeding me, bathing me, changing my diapers, clothing me and putting up with my incessant physical, emotional and mental hunger!

To Dad - for financially supporting me, for caring for me, for loving me. For never giving up on me and for continuing to love me.

To Fabie - for being so beautiful and sweet and strong, for inspiring me without intending to.

To Benji - for being my older brother and playing that part so well. For growing with me and for trusting me.

To Aaron - for being such a wonderful young brother who would follow me anywhere I would go. For trusting me so much, for always being beside me, for challenging me and being so damn cool.

To Andre - for being so tough and sweet, for challenging my understanding, for the willingness to argue and test my limits, for being so damn smart and strong. I love you.

To Marcelo - for being a great mirror for me to look at myself into, for coming at a perfect time in my life and for supporting me and listening to me more than I thought was possible. For believing in me. I love you.

To Dusty - for being a real woman, for being relentless in your care for me, for nourishing me on all levels, for being a timeless friend.

To Titi - for being the best friend anybody could ever ask for, for having such an amazing soul, for having so much spark, zest, strength and wonder.

To Irine - for being the greatest pen pal ever, for having so much to offer, for teaching me so much.

To Noah - for being such a cool dog.

To Mark - for being mature, gentle, honest, helpful and challenging.

To Adya - for being so real, so true, so natural, so awake, so good.

To All People - for making the world such an interesting place, for challenging my understanding, for motivating me to grow, for pushing me into grace and gratitude.

I am eternally grateful and feel eternally graced. I feel grateful for anyone who reads this and anyone who doesn't. I have accomplished my mission of understanding the basics and look forward to deepen into this understanding. No one is out of my list of gratitude, for all have directly or indirectly contributed to my growth.

Thank You! -- I Love You!

Why We Need Guides

If we're honest and quiet down a bit, it's not so hard to see that life is quite simple. Sure, this is a seeing that can easily be lost in a world that has gotten increasingly influenced by a variety of imposed conflicting ideas and structures.
Take for example what I just wrote, if you're simple and quiet you will not be wondering what I just wrote meant, it's not even a matter of being smart, bright or special, it's a matter of being relaxed and at ease.
To aid in restoring this ease and relaxation most of us will need guidance. Life is ultimately about balance and as we know, it is easy to lose our balance in the midst of the complexity of all the influences out there. A few religions is not enough, so we have thousands of them, a few diet plans are not enough, so we have thousands of them, a few general lifestyle paths are not enough, so we have thousands of them, a few countries are not enough, so we have hundreds of them, a few languages are not enough, so we have thousands... and on and on it goes.
Now, don't go jumping to conclusions, I am not suggesting that anything be different than it is, as far as I am concerned this vast variety is both inevitable and necessary. It is also what can make life so rich and wonderful. The problems come when there is conflict. Diversity is never a problem. It's conflict that can ruin the party. So it's okay to have different languages, cultures and countries -- it's the conflict that we want to mitigate and learn to resolve skillfuly. The point of a guide is to gently take you and me back to the simplicity of life so that you and I can become aware and grounded in the common source of all things. This way, you and I can see what is the same within what externally appears as different. This can lead to a natural and spontaneous dropping of any conflict within our maybe confused and conflicted internal system.
Once our system isn't confused anymore we are free to be what we are without conflict, without competition and without fear. And once this is accomplished, we can really start unleashing our true potential as a human beings in whatever areas we are drawn to excel at. Once balance is restored, our lives can be highly efficient and productive in a true sense. All our false senses of ability or false senses of accomplishment can disappear and we might be able to switch from just survival mode, to survival and celebration mode. And for that, we need guidance. Why? Because we have been thrown a million different things from a million different perspectives and we have been exposed a ton of apparently contradictory information and advice. We have been pushed and pulled and thrown out of balance in general. And just like our imbalance came from a bunch of differing and complex external guides, we need clear and simple external guides to help us regain our balance and find our way again.
Chances are, it will take a lot more than one guide to guide us back, it will likely take us many -- and if we know what to look for, we can learn from anyone or anything how to find our sanity, and balance again and find our way back to clarity and simplicity. All we need is to be sufficiently tired of the confusion and conflict that has been living in us and use that as fuel to develop a genuine intention to get clear and free -- after that, the guides come all by themselves... and we boy do need them!

Back Again

I never wanted to write something that revolved only around me again. There was such a great comfort in writing in "we" terms. That way I wasn't alone and I would be in the company of the rest of humanity. I was doing that as an excuse. I was saying "we are all messed up" because I didn't want to come face to face with "I am messed up."

It's unbelievable, I feel embarrassed about writing like a normal human being, I wanted to be this spiritual master that knew everything. My perfectionism reached its scariest limits when I decided to write a horrific message to a person that I love more than I can understand. I don't know why I love who I love how I love, but I do know that it has nothing to do with anything in this world. If the love was worldly, I would never be able to experience it for too long, I would always find people who are in a better worldly situation. True love is out of this world and out of the realm of reason and understanding. This is why we can't understand it and why it's so easy to doubt it so much. "Why would he or she love me?" we ask... the answer doesn't exist within the realm of the mind. It's true, on the worldly level there is always someone better than you and me, it's true, you and I are never going to be enough.

Reading the memoirs of Ricky Martin showed me that no matter how much we accomplish and how "far" we get in the world, what matters is something else. Living with a fairly accomplished father and seeing the emptiness of the American Dream accomplishment I realize that although it's really nice, and it has many benefits and I still want it, that's not where the real seed of happiness is.

I have been an ambitious and extreme perfectionist all my life. There is a part of me, that even though I love it and care for it, is a little devil -- I no longer mean that in a hateful way though, I mean it in a sweet, objective and truthful way. I don't judge myself as harshly as I used to. I have this beautiful customer at work that has two kids -- one she calls her little angel and the other she calls her little devil -- when I heard this, I instantly panicked and wanted to jump in to rescue the one that was being called little devil -- but I stopped myself and decided to look more closely. She meant it in a loving and beautiful way, she meant it with love, acceptance and compassion. Her eyes still shined with love as she gazed at this "devil," her touch was soft and gentle as she would ask for a kiss. She smiled as she called her that. Obviously this mom does not believe there is a fundamental difference between her angel and devil, she treated them both with the same amount of love.

Now I see that I can recognize that I can be a little devil, and I can be loving and compassionate with myself. I don't have to yell at myself inside and beat myself up.

I am becoming ever more deeply liberated from the tyranny of my own head. I am gradually seeing more and more things that I never thought I would let myself see about myself: how controlling I am, how judgmental, how addicted to attention I am, how insecure I am, how fake I am, how harsh I am, how addicted to being perceived as powerful and perfect I am, how I take advantage of people (especially my father), how much compassion I lack.

It hurts me, but in a good way, it is all leading me to innocence.

I always write about how I forgive everybody that ever did harm to me, but the truth is I realize that I need to ask forgiveness of all of those who I have harmed, which have been many. I have been rude, crass, tactless and harsh. I have been an asshole on many occasions, I have been really hard on people, just as hard as I have been on myself.

This is to the world, to the universe, to the entire Body of God: I am sorry.

Why I left illusion

Illusion is that thing that keeps you getting up in the morning and it gives you hope that things will be better in the future. It is that thing that intoxicates you in excitement and it makes you look forward to things. It can be infused into anything, a car, a house, a career, a relationship, a pair of shoes, anything. It has many, many benefits as well as many, many detriments. Most people live in it because it is familiar and culturally and socially encouraged, it's almost as if it was all we have left.

The reason why people stay in it, aside from the benefits, is because leaving it behind hurts like hell. Have you ever been through a tough break-up? This is what leaving illusion behind feels like. The relationship was being held by illusion, by hope, by dreams, by expectations, by attachment, by dependency and by the idea of a better future. Obviously, if it ended prematurely, all that had been within it was less than real. Reality by its definition and nature can't be undependable, it's the real.

What's funny is that we are left with a huge hangover, just like when we get drunk on either alcohol or a relationship or a spiritual experience or a failed attempt at an escape. The hangover can last for years! We got high or drunk on a potent illusory trance and now that the illusion broke down all we're left with is either the shock of the failure or the longing to go back into what was never really real in the first place.

Illusion is a tricky, powerful force that has the majority of humanity in its grip. It's not evil or bad, and it's not even trying to grip us... it's just that it's what we are taught to yearn for. When we are too little, say maybe 4 or 5, all we care about is playing around and discovering the world, we play in the mud and mess around with dirt. Well, that's changing these days, now we live in apartments and barely get to familiarize ourselves with nature, so maybe I am speaking for myself here (aren't we always?). Anyway, the point is that adults start encouraging illusion by asking us way before we're ready to tell them what we want to be when we grow up. Isn't that a ridiculous question? We usually answer back with whatever is hot in the illusion pool like doctor, firefighter, superstar or mailman. This is when the system starts to get conditioned towards chasing illusion. Later, everybody wants to be famous, wants to win the lottery, wants a million bucks (or preferably more), wants to be Puff Daddy or Lady Gaga and take off in their private jet with their suitcase packed with cash.

Illusion is rampant everywhere, any magazine, any TV channel, any conversation that you overhear anywhere is filled with illusions. At the time I am working in a café, and all I ever hear people talk about is illusion, illusion, illusion. Either the construction and pursuit of it or the destruction and breakdown of it. The construction feels great, you get people who are elated, their eyes light up, their plans are going to take off, they just got a new car, a new relationship, a new dog, a new job... it's all exciting and up from here. Illusion organizes itself and grips itself around the person and great expectations and plans arrive. Yuppy! Then there's the breakdown, the let down, the great deception, people talking about their financial issues, their breakup, tears and upset all over the place, depression, despondency, hopelessness, despair. It's all the trick of illusion.

I have fallen for illusion time and time again myself, but the consistency of the collapses of all fantasies that get formed when an illusion starts to be created by my naive and immature self has led me to see beyond it. Illusion is just too inconsistent and undependable, it always breaks down. The huge career, then becomes the great collapse. The accomplishment that you're super proud of, is followed by a great fall. The idea that something that was thrown in the air that sounds good will happen and sustain itself ALWAYS fails. The up and down of life and the down and up as well are just too predictable, illusion is a crazy-maker when you keep falling for it.

The departure of illusion is the biggest break-up of all, it's the last deception, the last disillusionment and it can take A LOT to get someone to give it up. Giving it up doesn't mean you stop living and you stop your life, it just means you stop believing that there is ANY reality in illusion. You see that illusion is just like magic and it's a trick and it's really enjoyable and cool and all, but you don't have any expectations of it. You know it's incredibly ephemeral and unpredictable and that all of its flavors are bound to keep on shifting. When you detach from illusion you feel like a surfer that enjoys the wave while it lasts and thinks its awesome... just like watching a movie which is obviously not real but we still feel the emotions. It's just that there's no attachment and no belief in the unreal.

A great shift in consciousness happens when you're willing to let yourself fall out of illusion all the way. You become liberated from the trap of identifying with anything or thinking that anything is permanent. You become empowered and sane, although you may seem insane to those caught in illusion. The world is filled with illusion junkies, those who are sober and choose to stay that way (for the most part) will definitely be misunderstood. They will seem like they're too at peace and too happy and healthy and that they must be delusional because of it. They will seem like they dismiss "reality" and just keep prancing along dancing through life as if it was some sort of illusion.

Thing is, the point is to be in the world but not of it... and those who aren't ready to abandon the attachment to illusion yet will never understand the magic dance of a liberated being! And that's why I left illusion! So long!

What ungrounds people

People who live in a frustrated state lose their ground because they have an imagined ideal of how the world "should" be. The dilemma is that the world is how it IS. What you see is what you get, period. When you create a division between what is and what you think should be you immediately set yourself up for failure.

Not all people are nice, not all days are sunny, not all rides are smooth, not all jobs are easy, not all days are great, not all interactions are comfortable, not all meals taste great, not all days you're healthy, not everything is funny, life is not always Disneyworld, every moment is not vacation, every instant can't be spent by the beach, not every moment is fun, every instant isn't comfortable and smooth.

There are mean people, there are crappy days, there are traffic jams, there are shitty jobs, there are bad days, people fight, there are poor tasting meals, sometimes we are sick, there is a lot of sad stuff, life is often hard work, there are times that require focused and narrow intention, one has to face the world, there are moments of tragedy, there are moments of great discomfort and bumps.

This is an attempt to convey the TOTAL truth of life. I've never been a fan of "be positive and don't be negative" thing... positivity IMPLIES negativity... so how about just keeping it REAL?

It takes a high degree of maturity to take what I am speaking about to the depths that it deserves. When people ingest the truth the world will be a much more effective place, not that I am waiting for it or demanding it. As far as I know life is fine just the way it is. The world is built on DUALITY so there is nothing within the world that holds the promise of permanence and stability. This is why deep and true spirituality is such an attraction to many of us because it has the power to takes us to a third perspective that allows us to connect with that which is beyond the opposites... that which is free, unbound, nondual and eternal.

If you're graced enough to stumble upon it, you're bound to get caught in it for some time, but remember bills are a reality and you have a life to lead. You will most likely inevitably get caught in there for quite a while -- but remember, you always have to come back from Disneyland. There is no perpetual vacation. The fact is you have a life to lead -- and as scary as that might seem, you can do it! I guarantee it! A tip? Hook into what you desire most.

Spiritual Evolution

It is funny how things can often be totally backwards from what we are taught they are. We are taught to believe that progress and virtue are things that we gain and accomplish through effort and accumulation.

This, if you think about it deeply, cannot be true. We are naturally virtuous and successful. The mere fact that we exist is perfect proof of this. The mere fact that we are alive and donned with a body, a mind and a soul are proof that we are already highly accomplished and highly virtuous and graced.

To realize this fully, one has to stop. Stopping in our culture isn't seen as something noble... our culture teaches us to accumulate and to keep the "fight" up.

The confusion and angst that goes through a being that has been stopped simply because he or she is too spiritually mature to keep the false game of pursuing happening can be agonizing. All sorts of symptoms can come out of this... depression, psychotic breaks, panic attacks, anxiety, fear, among many others.

Sadly, since our culture doesn't understand this, these poor souls are often diagnosed, judged and pressured even more. Not only does the pressure come from the outer voices, but also from the most persistent of all, the voice in our own head that came from outer culture itself. These conditioned voices are usually so wrong about everything, that it is really a shame that we ever believed or continue to believe them.

For those of you who know or sense what I am talking about, relax. There is nothing wrong with you, nothing has gone wrong. What is happening is simply that the old mental models that used to function for you (if they ever did) are no longer functioning. Your body is rejecting these inadequate ideals in an attempt to reharmonize with truly connected functioning.

This process is usually anything but pleasurable because there are generations of conditioning living within you that are being cleared out through your system. You have no idea how lucky you are to be experiencing this.

Think of yourself as a chosen one who has been chosen to release all the generations that came before you. In time, with love and patience, you will bring to the world something new and fresh... you won't be a repeat. You will be a new, authentic and connected being. The price to pay for this gift isn't low... you will have to put up with a lot. You will be misunderstood, you will be feared, you will be questioned and you will be labeled many negative things. The price will be worth it though because what will be born through you is a lot more precious and valuable than anything that has ever happened before. It will be the new consciousness, it will be unlike anything that has ever or will ever exist.

Don't be afraid, it's a very simple happening. Things will start to fall in place mysteriously and you will start to appreciate yourself again. It really helps to be nice and understanding with yourself and others along the process, of course this will be very difficult because it goes against our generational habits of intolerance and lack of understanding.

A suggestion of mine is to remember that everything happens for a reason, you are the way you are for many reasons and others are the way they are for many reasons... there are usually so many reasons that one can never know the complete answer. Usually we are intolerant of ourselves and others because we haven't been fully in touch with the essence of our beings. That is okay though; there is no judgment or blame in that. The toughest thing to do is to ease up on oneself and others... but even though this can be very, very tough... it must be done, otherwise you'll just suffer.

Understanding is a vital key to allowing the birthing of your new self to unfold. It is not easy, but it is possible. Get enlightened.

The Change of Season

We mortals are part of all that's transient
All form moves to the beat of the same drum
There isn't a single manifestation that isn't affected by the swings of totality
There is no such thing as structural stability

A flower withers when the season doesn't favor it
A dog sheds its coat when it becomes obsolete
The wardrobe suffers changes
And hibernation and migration take place

It's wonderful to be conscious
And see the cosmic shifts
Experience all the cycles
And see the falling leaves

Transformation isn't always pleasant
Neither is life
But a being that's in alignment
Can experience depth and truth

As the shells start to collapse
In response to a season's change
Reality starts to break in
And triumph once again

The fearlessness of falling
Starts to dawn within the brave
As those who are frightened harden
And hold on to their shell

My shell is way too broken
My heart is way too open
My trust is too enormous
I see the light again

Slice me
Dice me
Cut through me
For I am fearless and transparent

Giving Life To Space

It is so beautiful to take a square of a blank note and decorate it with a living creation. Before there was any text in this white box there was simply a beautiful white nothing. The reason for creation is pure celebration and joy. This is why God created the Universe. Sitting there for a trillion years staring at the pure potential of emptiness, there had to come a day where the creative capabilities had to be expressed. Had God never said "Let there be light" there wouldn't have been extended opportunities for little mortals like myself to take a blank page or a silent voice and turn it into a song that could be recorded onto a medium.

Now that the silent potential has taken on the form of a sad song, the creative gift can be shared with those who have an empty slot waiting to be filled.

The polishing of one's creative abilities gives rise to a confidence beyond what one imagined possible. The whole world is left behind and one discovers one's innate power and passion. When we connect with what we truly desire and see through all the conflicts that stand in the way of passionate creation, we slowly start to sense an immense power that pulls us towards our calling. At this point all sorts of fears get triggered: "Am I ready?" and a bunch of "What ifs?" stand in the way.

Others on their way look at you and have no clue of what you are going through, usually you are coming out of a desert that nobody will allow themselves to experience... but there comes a point where others disappear and you stand in your great aloneness. You are faced with making the decision to shed your caterpillar suit and blossom into the beautiful butterfly that you were always destined to become. The terror and panic triggered by the death of the body that has been so familiar starts to become sparkling excitement.

You become more and more maturely excited about your opportunity to give life to space. You will now take potential and shape it in the form of your deepest intentions. You will become a co-creator with God and will you discover what true life enjoyment is all about.

Sense the light and joy and give life to space, creation is what life is all about. Shine your light -- it is your destiny!

The Fear of Life

Mike has been through quite a trip... as a kid, he was quite shy but very smart and was one of three siblings. In school, he would get picked on and teased every now and then and he would enjoy riding his bike when he was at home. His childhood was relatively normal, nothing too dramatic happened. When he was in high school he started feeling insecure about his looks, he had a mild case of acne, which to him was severe. Others would notice his self-consciousness about his skin and would often stare at his pimples in response to the unconsciously drawn attention.

When Mike turned 19 he went to college, he picked a major he wasn't too passionate about but was told there would be good money in a career in computer programming. Mike knew little about computers but toughed it out. All through college Mike felt mostly self-conscious and quite insecure. He felt inferior and would always try to please his friends and summon up all he had to give and manufacture smiles and high energy on command. It was an interesting case, a dulled out soul with a bubbly exterior.

One day, a friend of Mike's gave him a spiritual book that talked about the possibility of becoming spiritually enlightened... Mike loved the idea since he had been looking for a way out of his dull inner life. Sure, he had friends, clothes, a job, parties to attend and plenty of company... but Mike felt dull and empty inside, he secretly felt like a phony that was running out of juice to project a happy exterior.

The book sucked Mike in, he became obsessed with spirituality. Shortly after graduation, Mike moved in with his girlfriend Laura in a cozy apartment in the suburbs, he got a job doing computer work and kept on with his spiritual seeking. Everything was relatively well, although the empty, dull, phony feeling kept on going. Mike's false exterior was really starting to get to him. Suddenly, Mike started snapping out and being rude to his girlfriend Laura, he was tired of faking those smiles and positive moods. Then his inability to uphold the phony persona started to collapse at work, and finally, it broke loose with his friends too. The ones who took most of the blow of the upwelling suppressed emotions within Mike where his Mom, Dad and brothers... they really had a piece of him... they really got to hear all his suppressed feelings about them.

Slowly Mike started becoming a wreck, he pushed most of his friends away, he lost his job and rejected his family. Laura had to pay for the rent now as Mike devoured countless spiritual books and attended dozens of spiritual seminars and consulted his spiritual guide. Mike became mostly a recluse. He didn't do much more than read books, listen to tapes and consult his teacher. It was a radical transformation and not for the better. Nobody understood, Mike was seen as sad case, a nutty wreck.

Inside of Mike's head were a bunch of spiritual ideas and thoughts about how the world should be, how people should live their lives and what people should do with their time. He believed that there was something severely wrong with the way life has gone and he was certain that there was such a thing as becoming spiritually enlightened and living in a state of bliss and passion. He continued reading books, attending speeches and talking with his master. Mike was completely unrecognizable to all who knew him, now he had switched his snappy, angry way of relating for a new spiritual persona where he was projecting love, kindness and compassion. Mike knew he was full of shit, but he kept on faking it anyway, he thought it would somehow lead him to his goal.

Crash! It wasn't too long before he couldn't uphold this really difficult show to perform continually, Mike became an even greater jerk again. Laura couldn't take Mike anymore and she divorced him. Mike ended up living with his parents again. Yikes, what a blow to Mike's spiritual ego.

One day, Mike's Dad, who in Mike's eyes was a very unenlightened, uncreative and unfulfilled fool, asked Mike a simple question: "My son, why are you so afraid of life?" Something happened inside of Mike's brain, this question put things in a way that Mike had never thought of before, it made Mike see the truth that he had always refused to see, he was terrified of life and the world. Most of what he always did was simply an avoidance of life, an avoidance of the world, an avoidance of living.

This question triggered Mike's greatest realization, what he called his greatest enlightenment: "Life is for the living"

From then on, ordinary Mike made a vow to live his life simply. He became the CEO of a computer programming firm and remarried; he had two beautiful children and lived happily ever after.

---

I wrote this story to reflect a common tendency in people who have a "spiritual personality." I happen to be one of these and I happened to experience this fear of life way more deeply and profoundly than I have ever experienced the fear of death. Some people fear living more than they fear dying, and if this is the case for you, I hope this story inspires you to go out there and LIVE THE LIFE THAT YOU WERE GIVEN!

What A Mature Person Knows

A mature man or woman knows that we are all unique individuals with different personalities, conditioning, inclinations and preferences. A mature person knows that we all come from the same source but acquire different traits along the way. A mature person remembers that we are all made of flesh and bone and that we are basically all the same while at the same time recognizing that we are all completely different and unique.

A mature person is never trying to convince or impose his or her views onto anyone else because there is no need for it. A mature person is non-judgmental and is never violent.

A mature person understands that violence can be as simple as disrespecting or ridiculing and/or mocking someone else.

A mature person isn't looking to be agreed with or understood on any level, because a mature person understands him or herself -- therefore he or she has no need to seek understanding or agreement.

A mature person knows that he or she is not perfect nor needs to be, for perfection is an illusion that can be defined in many incorrect ways. A mature person knows that there is perfection in imperfection and a mature person forgives imperfection because one of the biggest traits of a mature person is that he or she has completely stopped expecting such a thing.

A mature person doesn't believe in images or in idols or ideals. A mature person doesn't believe anything because a mature person knows that it is not necessary to believe in something for that something to be true.

There is no need to believe that you have fingers to KNOW that you have fingers. A mature person never settles for a belief and always strives for KNOWING.

In the end, a mature person realizes and becomes extremely satisfied and comfortable with the fact that it is impossible to know anything because the essence of truth is unknown and mysterious.

A mature person doesn't look for anything... a mature person rides the wave. There is no seeking, striving, yearning, searching, longing, pulling, desiring, pushing, rejecting, sucking, running, avoiding, nothing. A mature person is present and lastly a mature person doesn't get upset when he or she doesn't understand or agree with something... a mature person isn't bothered by paradox or "contradictions" -- for a mature person is clear.

For Those Of Us Who Don't Believe In Love

Millions of us have lost our faith in love and in life. All of us have been hurt, deceived, mistreated and underappreciated. All of us have hurt, deceived, mistreated and underappreciated others. We are all on the same boat.

Love is a mysterious and difficult power to comprehend; it has no form, no weight, and no location. It is ungraspable, untouchable and unreachable. We can’t buy it and we can’t sell it, we can’t manipulate it and we can’t control it, we can’t even produce it or manufacture it.

Obviously, another fact about love is that we can’t see it. All of these facts would take our rational minds to make the conclusion that it doesn’t exist and that it isn’t real… especially after having hurt and having been hurt so many times.

But how can we be hurt by something that doesn’t exist? Is that possible? The hurt that you have caused others and the hurt that others have caused you is the direct proof that love is real.

Love has so much potential that it can hurt us or heal us depending on how we see things. If we see the hurt that love can cause us as bad, we will probably develop a negative relationship with the infinite power of love. If we see hurt as the path that leads us into the full realization of love’s true face we will be humbled to the point of no return.

We will discover that doubt and fear are signals of our innocent denial of the full truth of love. When we uncover our denial and question our doubts we might just discover that love is all there is.

We will ultimately discover that love does have a form, a weight and a location, love is everything we see, feel, hear, taste and touch. Love is all there is, ever has been and ever will be. Love is absolutely real, it is absolutely permanent, and it is absolutely infinite. There is nothing that is not love… including the pain we feel. When we get this, we are at ease and we trust that love is always leading the way, no matter what.

The Big Awakening

My heart has shattered into a billion pieces
It has exploded into the All
Every fragment is now finally in its rightful place
There is absolutely nothing left of me but openness
I can see again
I am completely humbled
The last thing I expected
Here it is
I am done
My heart is totally here

7-11

The search for truth can make you an insanely complicated being who succeeds at nothing more than pushing everything away. The desire for grandiosity will kill your essence faster than anything. Today I have awoken and all I see is that I do not know anything and that it is all very simple. I am glad to be back and I would gladly work as a cashier in 7-11. What a relief! I am done.

The Key To Liberation

In our mostly insane world, one of the first things many of us are taught is how we are a huge problem, some of us cry too much, want too much and need too much – when we are babies, that is. The first transmission many of us get from our innocently ignorant parents is that we are a huge problem. We are a huge burden. “Ugh, I have to deal with this little devil again? When will it be over?”

Okay, so maybe you were lucky enough to skip the crappy parents, but what about cultural and religious conditioning? In our society, matters can get pretty intense as well, we are taught that we need to “improve,” that we need to study, that we need to lose weight, look good, be rich and become famous. In church (and even outside of it) we are taught that we are evil, dirty sinners that have an “original” dirty sin and an originally black and vile heart. You may think I am exaggerating but if you delve into the religious conditioning systems you will see that the point is to make you feel completely worthless, inferior and guilty.

Add this to the crazy people you bump into along the way, people who are constantly criticizing you, making fun of you and trying to make you feel like you are bad. This is especially true for the people you are closest to! Isn’t it funny how strangers are usually sweeter, more accepting and more loving than our family and friends? Don’t worry, if you become friends with a stranger (or start a romantic relationship with one, for that matter), it won’t be long until he or she feels entitled to start belittling you in some way or another.

The people closest to us are the ones who feel most entitled to make us feel like junk. I think this is mind blowing! Have you noticed? As a teacher and as an outgoing person, I have brief encounters with people constantly, the people that I meet for the first time are the nicest, most supportive, encouraging, loving, understanding and endearing people. I bet their close friends and family don’t see them that way (and if they do, I bet they don’t let them know directly.)

Anyway, the points are – things don't have to be this way because the truth is that you are not originally a sinner regardless of who you are, you are not lazy, you are not selfish, you are not evil, you are not stupid, you are not dumb, you are not wrong, you are not bad. You’re just a human being just like all the people who came up with these outrageous ideas. It was certainly not God who came up with any of these destructive, insensitive, manipulative and damaging notions. God created all there is and God is love. God really loves you and God would really love to see you come into alignment with His love and join Him in the Self-Love party.

The key to salvation is Self-Love – that’s the secret – and you know what? It doesn’t matter what you’ve done or who you are, if you can pull True Self-Love off, you are saved. Take it from me, I know. ;-)

What I Keep Discovering

The more I experience the world, the more I realize that it is a lie that I hate it. I love the world and the way it is. It is amazing how adulthood tends to become the doorway into a delusional insanity that can makes us feel incredibly disgusted at the gift of life. I love to observe children, when they are not being childish or cruel, when they are at their open and free state. There is no greater joy to me than the joy of learning the lessons that the innocence of a child have to offer.

There is something so profoundly beautiful about a being that knows that it doesn't know anything.

Yeah, what I keep discovering over and over, what I keep realizing over and over is that the real truth is that I don't really know anything. I don't know how the world should be, must be or needs to be. I don't even know how the world really is. I don't know what's right and what's wrong... not really. The truth is that I don't know anything and I don't even know if that's true.

I keep falling into the space that I am so in love with, the vast, open space of the consciousness of an innocent child. It is so lovely. I discover true enjoyment, true life, true freedom.

It is so beautiful and precious that I don't even need it or want it. It is not mine. It is free of me. I love it. The fulfillment and the richness of the experience I am unsuccessfully trying to point to is such a profound

I was going to keep writing, but I can't. I've gone beyond words, and something wants to dwell there.

I love what we truly are -- I am no longer afraid of it.

Wow.

The Idea That There Is Something To Get

I can’t think of anything sadder than the way we’re continuously conditioned to see success. The way we’re taught is basically this: accumulate accomplishments by investing and focusing all of your energy on a goal until you get what you want. Do this an infinite amount of times and you will end up successful and happy.

Poor culture! The model has served for not much more than a bunch of insane people who are looking for what they desire most in all the wrong places. The model is also perfect for making us ignore all that is important since what we are pursuing becomes what we think is the most important thing. Parents ignore their children because they are after a reward at work, teachers ignore their students because they are after following the guidelines of the educational system, boyfriends ignore their girlfriends because all the relationship is really based on is on creating an appearance. It’s just freaking sad how our culture has set it all up. Chase, chase, chase, chase, chase and never get there. It’s like a horse with the carrot attached to the front of its face, it will never quite reach it.

When are we collectively going to notice? This, is of course a rhetorical question, I for sure, have noticed and actually enjoy the benefits of not falling for the endless trap of chasing a better life, experience, state of being or whatever. I know with every fiber of my being that this is it. My recognition has gone so deep that even religion and spirituality have lost at their attempt to try and convince me that there is a goal to achieve. I know, without doubt that there is nothing to get! Nothing to achieve! That life is an ever-unfolding mystery that continually opens and opens and opens. Now, now, now, or should I say noooooooooooooooooooooooo...w.

Does this exclude goal setting, pursuing certain things and making plans? Not necessarily. All those things can still very well operate and happen within the reality of life, in fact, they’re always happening! Any plan or any goal you set out to pursue is an idea at best. There is absolutely no idea that can override the simple truth of this moment. You don’t know if you’ll be alive tomorrow, period. In life, it is clear that anything is possible. Anything could happen. You don’t know, I don’t know. So the idea that you should ignore all that really matters to simply pursue what you think you want is shortsighted and, if you ask me, it seems to be loaded with (avoidance of) pain. The pain of not wanting to face this moment as it is, the pain of not stopping right here and right now and getting really real.

What I write isn’t philosophy, it’s more like truth. Saying that you don’t know what will happen five minutes from now isn’t mental masturbation, it is the truth. Saying that you don’t know if we’ll make it until next Saturday isn’t bullshit, it’s the simple truth. We don’t know a damn thing. All we know, for now is that we are alive, that we are here. Everything else is in such a constant state of flux that we can’t consider it actual knowing; one day milk is good for you, the next decade we discover that it’s really not, one day you’re a skinny, hot dude or babe, ten years later you’re something else altogether. One day the earth is flat, a thousand years later we discover that it’s round. We don’t know what we think we know for sure.

How do you know that when you get what you’re seeking you’ll be happy? How do you know that? Hasn’t all your life experience up to this point proven you otherwise? What about all the times you got what you thought you wanted? Why aren’t you as happy as you knew you would be once you got that? When are we going to stop bullshitting ourselves?

Again, these are all rhetorical questions. The point isn’t to answer them but to allow them in and have their effect if they are going to have any. There will come a day for all of us when we will start to wonder all of these things… once we stop pushing it away, avoiding it, denying it and fearing it we will be graced with the simple truth, the truth that a really respected guy once said will set you free.

There is nothing to get, there is nowhere to go. Life is just living itself. That’s actually what’s happening. Are you ready to accept this?

Why You Volunteered To Be Here

So imagine you’re a soul, and you’re up in the sky and you look down and see what’s going on at planet Earth. You see there’s a tremendous amount of pain and suffering going on. Beautiful you tells God: “Hey God, I want to go down there and help.” And God says: “Are you sure you want to go down there my love? Do you know what you’re getting yourself into?” And you say “Well, I can’t know what I am getting myself into, it does look pretty messy and painful down there, but I want to give it a shot anyway. Besides, I see there’s a bunch of cool stuff down there too… TV, cars, money, sex, flowers, friends, family, respect, love, admiration, success – I kind of want to see how those things feel” And God says “I understand my beloved, but you have all you could possibly need up here with me,” And you say, “I know God, but I really, really want to go down there and help out and see what it’s all about” God finally says: “Okay, you are free to go, you are always free and have always been free, but just know this: you may forget this when you go down there. You may get overwhelmed by the pain and suffering and you may completely lose the sense of freedom for quite some time. You will most likely forget this day and forget me, you will probably learn about some false me and you’ll struggle to find me again.”

Boom! Crash! Here you are! Of course by now, you’ve forgotten all of it and now you think it’s all about you. You think it’s all about what you think, what you feel, what you go through, what you want, what you don’t want, etc. It’s all about YOU. It’s all become a “me, me, me” game. What my parents did to me, how my parents are to me, what the world is to me, how the world is to me, what God did to me, how God is to me. It’s all revolves around me! As I'm sure you know, a life lived like this becomes tremendously painful; after all you’ve innocently decided to perceive it in a way where you are the only pressure point in existence.

Try to remember that conversation you had with God, your original, most pure intent was not to get lost in the pain you chose to embody in order to be in this world, it was more about healing that pain and continuing to heal all the pain you encounter at each moment. That is why you and I are here – of course we are also here to experience all the rest of the stuff that comes with this creation. Remember your spiritual origin, remember your spiritual intention, and remember your spiritual roots. Once you are clear on why you are here, you will be much more available to enjoy this insane ride. You will experience the joy of the gift of having been allowed to embody in this messy planet to have a shot at healing all the pain you had to take on and beyond. It is beautiful. Just remember and you will see! Believe me, I know! :-P

Anger, Fear, Guilt, Shame And Others

As we become more conscious of the things I’ve been writing about lately (how we are constantly avoiding the present moment and so on) many times a whole bunch of repressed, unconscious data starts to unload. We start to feel the anger we might feel towards our parents, towards society and towards life in general, our fears certainly start to surface, including our deepest ones. Guilt and shame about our past also start to surface and trust me, it’s no fun. All of the repressed and suppressed emotions within us start to come out for resolution.

The material of the past tends to cause anger, guilt and shame and thinking about the future usually causes tremendous fear and anxiety. It’s amazing how virtually every human being walking the earth is loaded with these pushed down feelings and they don’t even know it. If I were to tell anyone I know all of this stuff they would likely ask: “What are you talking about? I don’t have any of those feelings.” And of course I understand this – how would they know? We’ve worked so hard at avoiding our feelings for so long, that we've become experts at suppressing and repressing, so much so that many times we’re not even aware that we're doing it! It’s become an innocent, automatic and deeply unconscious process.

The reason why most of us aren’t interested in this type of stuff and even consider things like these useless chatter is because we are terrified of the hidden recesses of our psyches. We are so fearful of ourselves that as a defense mechanism we unconsciously shut down our ability to see what we think is overwhelming within us. The truth is that most of us have enormous amounts of hidden, heavy and dark material. A simple way to see this is to turn on the news or read the newspaper… simpler yet, listen to how often we complain and how judgmental most of us are. Those are all ways the hidden, rotten, old material sticks its face out for a moment. The kicker is that we are so collectively unconscious that this has all become normal behavior. Judging another is normal, constant complaining is normal, constant negativity is normal, constant pessimism is normal, constantly playing the victim is normal, constantly being in fear or terror of the future is normal.

The reason why we all enable ourselves to live this kind of life is because we have collectively agreed that we are going to stay miserable and support each other in our misery. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying that I certainly didn’t come up with: misery enjoys company. The reason why misery enjoys company is because misery couldn’t possibly survive without company! Imagine a miserable person around nine truly, sincerely and honestly happy people? His misery wouldn’t last much, would it? The happy people wouldn’t fall into his or her drama for a million bucks! Who would? Truly happy people know that life is a gift, that it is great while at the same time not being in denial about the harshness that it can present.

The point of this writing certainly isn’t to beat down on your misery, in fact, what I really want to do with this one is to tell you that I really understand. I understand how you feel; I understand the anger, the guilt, the shame, the fear and all other emotions hidden in your emotional closet. I would like to encourage you to express these emotions, to let them out of the closet, to experience them and to set them free. The process of doing this is certainly not pleasant at all, believe me, I’ve been going through a long period of this and it feels like ass.

Some things I could tell you to make the process easier for you, if you are brave enough to allow it to happen, are that none of the stories you tell yourself in your head are true. They might have been true in the past, but they are obviously not true now. You may have to dig for your stories; most people I know are so unconscious that they couldn’t even start to imagine that they have deep stories embedded in their subconscious. Typical ones are: “I’m not loved,” “No one cares,” “I’m not worthy,” “I hate the world,” “Life sucks,” “I’m alone,” “No one listens,” “I want to die,” “The world is scary,” “I can’t do it,” “I suck,” “I have it worse than everybody else,” and on and on it goes. If you want to find out you’ll have to do the digging.

Again, none of these stories or whichever you come up with could possibly be true at this moment. The fact that you are reading this is an obvious sign that things are going well for you… if they weren’t you’d be doing something other than reading an article that is obviously aimed at exposing your internal reality and allowing it to flow out of your insides. Only those ready for this will read this, that’s the way it works. I wish I could get this message to the kids that are in the process of forming negative self-beliefs… that’s what you and I once did, and that is why we now have to read things like these to overcome our limitations.

By the way, if you’re like most people, you may be wondering what the payoff for doing all of this is… well, you just get more honest, more real, more true, more understanding, more compassionate, more caring and more loving with life, with yourself and with others. Do you want that? To me, the only true happiness there is, is the joy of loving and understanding. Anything that’s not that, is not really happiness, it’s more like delusion, which is actually what most of us experience daily.

The Big Switch: From Fear to Love

Have you noticed how most of us are still thinking and acting like cavemen? Okay, it’s true, we now know how to handle a Blackberry (which is now an electronic device), we now can also type things like this article on the internet. We have a sophisticated brain that is able to come up with an equally sophisticated language and culture. It’s great, it’s beautiful… but what is it that I mean when I say that most of us are still thinking and acting like cavemen? Let me explain.

I’ve talked and written about two types of motivation: fear-based motivation and love-based motivation. The fear-based model is simple: everything we do, we do for survival. In this type of motivation the root of behavior is very simple: if it will keep me alive I’ll keep doing it, if it will kill me I'll avoid it at all costs. Thankfully, this is how cavemen operated! If it wasn’t for that, our sophisticated systems would not be here. If it wasn't for the avoidance of death approach that cavemen excelled at, I certainly would not be writing this and you would certainly not be reading it. Cavemen did their thing to get you and me to be here well, fear of death worked.

Now, let us look at the other option that has, in my opinion, been an option for quite some time now. This is the love-based approach; this is when we do what we do because we love to do it, not because we are afraid that we will die if we don’t. This is the option that has opened up thanks to the success of cavemen who survived all the trials and tribulations they went through from the time of poisonous blackberries vs. good blackberries to the time of handheld electronic Blackberries.

My point is simple: it is no longer necessary to be running on a fear-based approach. Life is no longer as threatening as it was when we were dinner for other species! Our victory has changed things around a bit, now it is us that capture other animals and eat them for dinner, so we need not be afraid any longer!

Now, survival is as simple as getting up, getting in the car, doing light work and getting a paycheck every week. Things have changed quite a bit, wouldn’t you say? There’s no need to be so afraid anymore, is there? We are spoiled now! Living is quite easy if we are to compare with cave days.

Our approach can now go from fear-based to love-based in the sense that we can actually drive our car where we love to drive it, do the work we love to do, experience the things we love to experience and at the same time get rewarded for it!

Is this how most of us are choosing to live our lives? It doesn’t seem like it. Most of us still use survival talk as if survival was still such a difficult struggle. Many of us despise our jobs and keep going to them as if we had no other choice, as if the only way for us to survive was attending that specific job.

Let’s face it, we live in a world filled with options, filled with possibilities, filled with opportunities, all we need to do is exercise our love for a particular function, one that we just feel lovingly inclined to practice. If we do this, we make our passion into our dream job. I know this sounds simplistic, and in a way it is, the hardest thing is realizing that what I am writing about is totally possible. You will have to defeat all the voices in your head that are arguing with the reality that you can indeed switch your motivation from fear-based motivation, to love-based motivation. We are not cavemen anymore. It takes diligent work, but we can do it!

The End Of Running Away

Because it seems to be happening to me, I am going to make the educated guess that there comes a point for many of us where we notice that most, if not all the things we do are avenues of distraction, avoidance or simply running away.

Before I go on, I want to say that there is nothing wrong with this – well maybe there is something wrong with this, but I just don’t want to place a value judgment on something that seems to be happening to almost all of us.

So yeah, anyway to go on, most of the things we do, we do in order to avoid a very simple thing that is usually concealed within many complex psychological layers. I am referring to the simplicity and clarity of the here and now. Most of us cloud the here and now with a bunch of activities, thoughts and emotions. It’s like we are terrified of experiencing life directly, clearly and simply.

How do we manifest this terror? We go on pursuits! We pursue happiness, more money, sex, highs, relationships, drama, you name it! It seems like ANYTHING could be used to cloud over and dismiss the simple present moment. There just doesn’t seem to be anything interesting within the here and now, it seems too neutral, too boring, too simple, too obvious, too familiar.

So, when we start to realize this, some of us embark on a “spiritual journey,” some of us embark in a "pursuit of fame and success journey," some of us go into a "getting wasted every night journey." Basically, we hop on whatever wave that seems to carry the promise of getting us outside of the "insufficient" here and now.

Why does the here and now seem so threatening? I’m going to suggest that there are many reasons for this. First, I’m going to say that we have been conditioned by our culture to seek outside of the here and now. Second, and this is not necessarily exclusive of the first, is that we may have traumas that affect our ability to remain in the here and now. Maybe the last time you were consciously here and now (which was most likely during your early childhood) something spooked you out of it. Any kind of abuse will do. As a result of the abuse you might have concluded that being here and now is dangerous, so you programmed yourself to avoid being here and now at all costs. This is something that might have gotten so deeply imprinted in your brain that you have no idea what this article is about.

Let me use myself as an example. I’ve always been a sensitive person, for long I have been terrified of being here and now because I probably have traumas that started back in my early life. When I was here and now (very present) and just being a healthy, normal and natural being, there were adults around me yelling and not too pleased with my behavior. So what did I do? I created my own world in my head, a world that I would use to separate myself from the apparently hostile here and now that had people shouting within it.

Ever since, I’ve been developing different strategies to avoid being here and now. I went to college, largely because I didn’t want to be here now, I smoked cigarettes because I didn’t want to be here now, I became addicted to sex because I didn’t want to be here now, I got in and stayed in unhealthy relationships because I didn’t want to be here now, I wrote tons of pages because I didn’t want to be here now, I worked out three hours a day for three months because I didn’t want to be here now, I read many books because I didn’t want to be here now, I went on a spiritual search because I didn’t want to be here now, I went absolutely nuts because I didn’t want to be here now, the list goes on and on.

My life, and most likely your life, has become all about avoidance of such a simple thing. Not only because of the trauma, but also because we seem to be trained to fear the here and now (which is another form of trauma, by the way).

Now that we are caught in this avoidance pattern, what do we do? Well, just imagine… if, like me, you became conscious of this deep reality and you were to act on it, all the stuff you do to AVOID being here and now would probably start to fall away. It would all start to disintegrate for you (believe me, this would definitely happen). This process, as you can guess is not necessarily fun… this is why most of us hold on tightly to all the distracting mechanisms that we use to avoid being present. I, for example have let go of a lot, but thought is still there with me when I am making my bed. Thought is in the way of the direct experience of making my bed. I start to think about something else as I am making the bed, I must be afraid of simply making my bed! It’s amazing how traumatized we can be without even knowing it! You might say, that’s not fear… but why else would incessant thought be going through my head as I am making my bed?

I suggest that it’s because if I don’t think then I won’t figure the rest of my life out! (A funny endeavor that most of us seem to be engaged in. I think it’s hilarious, don’t you?)

Anyway, the here and now, at least for now is not threatening, there is nothing harmful about consciously coming to the present moment and dwelling in it. Why don’t we both submerge ourselves into it and start to question all the fears that come up around being here now? After all, isn’t the here and now all there really is? A second ago is gone and a second from now is not here yet. So if you’re either in the past or in the future, you’re living in a fantasy. How does that make you feel? Because I certainly keep losing the taste for the unreal more and more, it’s just boring.

The Denial of the Spiritual Realms

Okay, before I start, I want to tell you that the real title of this article is “The Denial of the Subtle Realms” – I used the word spiritual instead, because I am aware that we have been conditioned to think of the spiritual as the subtle, ethereal realms of a higher order. The truth is, that at least in the way I’ve come to see it, there is nothing that is not spiritual. The truth is that the realm that you and I inhabit right now is a spiritual realm. Brushing your teeth, tying your shoelaces, eating breakfast and going to work are perfectly spiritual things in my book. Of course we have not been taught that, we’ve been taught that the spiritual is up there and we could not be more separated from the high and holy. Anyway, that’s another story… what I really want to write about now is about the obvious fact of the existence of subtler (or what most call “spiritual”) realms.

Do you really think that the only intelligent, creative and self-aware beings are human beings? I mean, come on! That would be silly, wouldn’t it? Knowing that there are degrees of density from our direct observation, and knowing the infinity of space we have got to be a bit more honest. Can you see the radio waves in the air that can bring any of those boxes we call radios to life? What about the waves that upon reception brings your TV to life? What about Wi-Fi? What about the way your voice can travel all the way to China through a cell phone? I mean, come on! We all know from just our daily experience that reality is multidimensional. We have dense rocks and subtle breezes; we have dense rain and subtle sunlight; isn’t it obvious?

The idea that the only beings that are self-aware are these beings called humans, beings who reside on the relatively tiny planet called Earth is just silly. The only lucky, graced and gifted ones by a cosmic evolutionary “accident” can’t be us. That’s an egocentric trip at best, at least if you ask me. It takes a pretty hurt and scared soul to shut off the sensitivity to the multidimensional reality. But again, that’s another story.

I’d like to posit something that perhaps many of us have not thought about. I know that I have mentioned the vastness of the universe and created images making planet Earth seem small. I know that this might seem like I am implying like other, more subtle realities are distant from where we are, but that’s not necessarily so. Like I said, there is a ton of information floating in the air you breathe, you are breathing in thousands of TV channels, thousands of radio stations, tons of subtle information. Another thing that you can’t argue is that love has no solidity to it, you can’t tell me what love looks like, how much it weighs or how much it’s worth, more poignant than all of that is that you can't tell me where love is. Love is another thing you are breathing in and out every instant.

So, who knows? Maybe we are also in the presence of a plethora of dimensions that are so much subtler than what our senses can perceive that we wouldn't even be aware of them. Maybe there’s what they call a bunch of angels surrounding you now – they may be so subtle and in such a different order of reality that you wouldn’t be able to see them! Our senses might just be too slow to be able to experience of perceive such beings.

The point isn’t to call them angels, the point is whether there might be beings surrounding you or not. It doesn’t matter what you call them. It is an obvious fact that there are other dimensions that have different sets of laws ruling them… just remember a recent dream and you will see what I am talking about.

The nicest thing about all of what I am writing about is that it is all relatively irrelevant and relatively unimportant, it's ultimately kind of like knowing that there are people who live in China. You may not be seeing them now, but you know they are there and now you don't have to be in denial about it – which is always a good thing, because you will be aware of a more global reality and you will make the tiny adjustments necessary to coexist harmoniously.

All I am hoping to bring out in the light is that there is more to reality than we might be aware of, there is more space, more possibilities and more of everything. The point is to come out of denial, that's all. It only takes opening our senses and opening our minds and hearts to be able to come out of what I think is such an obviously egocentric denial. I do not think that we are alone and that all there is, is a shitty world that makes us get up in the morning and go to work. There is MORE to life; and I think we all intuitively know this… it’s a matter of being brave enough to come out of our mental boxes and explore the multiple possibilities.

Remember, the existence of an infinite number of realms doesn’t ultimately matter, this is all about getting you out of denial, not about making you a spiritual junkie, which is the last thing we need. The whole point of this life and this living is to take care of and be HERE now.

The whole point is to be aware of that in which we invest too much energy denying, so we can have the energy available to be present and ready for NOW.

Dare to Understand

A lot of us define ourselves by our refusal to understand others – “I can’t understand why he would do that,” “Who does that?” “Why would she do that?” – These are some of the typical statements that we say, and supposedly mean. The question is: is it really true that you don’t get it? Or are you just saying that you don’t get it?
I’m going with the latter. My guess is that you do understand and you’re just saying you don’t or you can’t to create boundaries that define who you think you are. I mean who would you be if you understood racist behavior? Who would you be if you understood cruel behavior? Who would you be if you understood unhealthy behaviors?

Many of us seem to think that understanding a terrorist means that we are encouraging the obviously wrong behavior. We seem to be so terrified of actually relating to and understanding a criminal because we think that we will automatically become an accomplice. Again, I beg to differ. I think that realizing and admitting that one understands a criminal is half the victory of overcoming destructive behaviors. Expecting a terrorist to act like a normal, healthy and sane person is unreasonable – there are obviously deep underlying issues within the psyche of such a person. There is obviously an exaggerated pathological condition that has gotten extreme enough to manifest as a suicidal freak that seeks to harm others.

Can you understand any obviously deranged behavior? Of course you can! How? Just look at yourself… okay, I’m not saying you’re an obvious case of severe pathological neurosis, but there are definitely smaller behaviors in your arsenal that you are less than proud of. Not only that, but you find it hard, if not impossible to control them!

This, my friend, is the key to relating with another. Whether they have an exaggerated, magnified case of destructive behavior, or whether it’s something as seemingly small as road rage.

Just think – that terrorist could have been you – you’re just lucky that your neurosis hasn’t reached such magnitude. You CAN understand the other by understanding yourself… and once we have a critical mass of people who understand we can move on to global healing. As always, it starts with you and me though.

You and I CAN understand – that’s one of the greatest gifts of life, the ability to understand.

Shame, shame, shame!

A lot of us are waiting to improve certain aspects of our lives before we get help from another. Wow! Yeah! This really does happen and I think it's likely due to shame! It’s so funny. Many of us are trying to lose some weight before we join the gym! Don’t you think that’s funny? The gym is one of the best tools we use to lose weight! Some of us are waiting to get in better shape to start a psychotherapy phase! Wow! Isn’t that funny? Psychotherapy is one of the best tools you can use to see through patterns that keep you from going to the gym and taking it seriously.

Some of us are waiting to get better at reading and writing before we actually decide to go to college! Wow! Isn’t that funny? College is a perfect place for us to improve our reading and writing skills.

Shame! Shame! Shame! That’s what it looks like it all boils down to. Most of us are waiting to improve before we decide to commit to an improvement discipline. It’s so funny! It’s like a double negative thing going on in human consciousness, a conflict that cancels out and drains precious energy and keeps many of us stuck in patterns of mediocrity.

Do I happen to understand why we do this? I believe so, it is called fear. Do I understand this fear? I believe so, it is called the drive to survive. Do I understand our natural desire to survive? I believe so, it seems to be an inherent quality within all living forms.

I understand, I understand, I understand. But STILL, when we get focused and honest we will see that most of us are being unreasonable, illogical and irrational -- and even that, I understand! There is nothing wrong with us, we are not alone, we are all in this together!

Now if we're tired of the way we are or have been for longer than we're proud of, let's question our beliefs and prove ourselves wrong!!! We might find out that we've been totally wrong about the way we've been seeing things... the worst that can happen is CHANGE! A change that might lead to the reduction or perhaps even the end of SHAME!

A Buddha

A Buddha can't possibly see what's wrong, a Buddha can only see what's right. A Buddha can't possibly complain, worry or think about what should be. A Buddha can only see, appreciate and love what is. Enjoy what IS. Fully. A Buddha can't possibly see things the way the ego sees it, it is impossible, totally impossible for a Buddha to see things from a negative point of view. Only the ego can do this, and even a person with a high degree of Buddhahood can fall for the ego for a second, a minute, an hour, a day, a month... but the Buddha will always reawaken from ego and see it was just a trance, a dream, a story, a trick.

A Buddha can't possibly see anything wrong with anything, wrong does not exist in the mind of a Buddha. There is no such thing as wrong, there is only the totality of what is. There is absolutely no need for a Buddha to judge, label, analyze, question, doubt, fear anything. There is just no chance of it. There is no need, it is seen as a trance and released as soon as it is seen.

A Buddha knows when he is in a trance state and when he is awake and clear. When he is in a trance he feels conflict, division, fear, separation. When he is clear he is outside of all states, outside of all experience, he IS what IS. A Buddha IS the state, is inside the state, outside the state, around the state. A Buddha IS the state.

A mature Buddha does not seek higher states, better experience, a better place, a better environment. A mature Buddha does not seek. A mature Buddha knows that he IS the environment. A mature Buddha does not look for ways of escape, he does not yearn for a higher, better state or condition. He is present with what is, 100% A higher Buddha does not seek enlightenment, liberation, freedom, radical transformation or evolution. A higher Buddha is all of the before mentioned. A higher Buddha is the most active, responsive and engaged being, flowing with the totality of existence and beyond. A higher Buddha is dynamic, creative, responsive and fully alive! There is no dis-engagement in a fully embodied Buddha. A Buddha does not register better or worse, because it's all ONE. It's all THIS. There is no before or after for a Buddha, no then and now, no this and that. Just THIS, ONE, HERE.

A fully conscious Buddha recognizes with every fiber of his being, with every ounce of his light that THIS IS IT. That there is nothing before or after THIS. That THIS is IT. Regardless of how THIS chooses to appear. THIS is IT. There is no desire to free yourself from this, because you ARE this.

There is no fear in a Buddha's system, there is only fear in a lower body, a lower mind. A Buddha loves his lower body and lower mind and allows it to get hooked onto trances because a Buddha knows it's no big deal and there is nothing to lose. There is no such thing as a big deal for a Buddha, no such thing as loss. There is no such thing as depression for a Buddha, no such thing as despair, hopelessness, anxiety, dread, worry, a sense of impending doom, insanity, insecurity, problems, questions.

But a Buddha will lovingly claim all these delusions, will lovingly embody all these resistances to the Eternal Tao and wash them in its right view and clarity. A Buddha is True Freedom to experience, live and go through anything. A Buddha is what you truly are! Awaken to your Buddha Nature.

Snap out of it and BE!

I have seen throughout my life a whole bunch of "humble" fakes! I'm through with it in myself and I have no tolerance for this humility and insecurity in others! ENOUGH! Your "humility" is destroying you and the world!

You are GREAT! You are smart, funny, powerful, witty, incredible and amazing no matter who you are! No matter what!

Since most of us are raised by incredibly arrogant parents who think they know what they're talking about they THINK they know what's right and what's wrong, what's good and what's bad -- they have NO idea! Nobody does... except for one person and that is YOU!

Stop pretending like you are a weak idiot that doesn't know what you want! You DO! Look around, what you see around you is exactly what you want!

If you are having problems relating, in the world, in society, in sex, in whatever most of it is probably due to second-guessing yourself too much. You are being dragged around by phony idiots who think they know how to live! They OBVIOUSLY don't! If they did the world wouldn't look like the mess it does, can you argue with this? If you can, get lost and find something better to do than to read this pile of crap that I'm writing.

You are GREAT! You ARE AMAZING! You are DIVINE, you are INCREDIBLE! The influence you have had on others goes FAR BEYOND what you could possibly imagine. You are attractive, influential and powerful beyond your wildest dreams. Enough hiding it and bullshitting yourself and others, it's not working!

Cut the whining, complaining, doubt, cynicism and insecurity already. Your show is boring, bland and predictable. Stop acting like an idiot! You are NOT an idiot. You are NOT a fool. You are NOT ugly, you are NOT stupid, you are NOT crazy and you are NOT lazy. You are graceful, powerful, immense and shockingly strong. Look at you, look at all the nonsense and bullshit you've endured, look at all the crap you've put up with! Pick yourself up NOW! Not later, not tomorrow, not when you get what you "want." Do it NOW! This is your ONLY chance EVER. This is your LAST opportunity, it is your ONLY opportunity.

Stop moping around and swimming in confusion and powerlessness. Jump into your true water, the water of security, the water of true confidence, the water of grace! Stop being a pathetic little ego that's crying for attention, for love and for approval. Give all these things to yourself, you are the ONLY one that can do it! Other people are constantly supporting you, advising you, counseling you, telling you what to say, think, do, feel, believe -- DON'T LISTEN TO THEM! They are the reason why you are stuck in contaminated waters.

I am no motivational speaker, and this isn't "cute" stuff. This is the plain old TRUTH. There is nothing religious or spiritual about this, this is FACT. Wake up NOW. Claim your power, be the king or queen that you are and stop pretending like you are any less. Stop your shit. Grow into yourself. Be.

All your "problems" are bullshit. You are in GREAT condition. Stop defending your weaknesses and get REAL. You need nothing or no one. You are it! You are the one! You are your own savior, your own grace, your own power! STOP giving it away to others who don't know this, because if you are still reading this you KNOW beyond any doubt that YOU ARE IT!

No excuses! Wake up and realize that YOU ARE IT!

The Difficulty Of Becoming Free Of Ingrained Patterns

I think it's obvious by now that it is not "easy" to break free from our tendencies for self-sabotage, inefficiency and tail-chasing.

I've always been an ambitious and overzealous dude. I've always thought I could just take out the axe and chop the damn thing at its trunk. One, two, gone!

Yeah right! I've always had this desire to make everything seem so much easier than it really is. Just break, explode or destroy the damn thing at once! Okay, I'm being redundant.

Anyway, it's just not that easy, isn't it obvious? I mean, if it was, we'd have a bunch of responsible, enlightened, selfless and wonderful human beings embodying the ultimate state of absolute grace. Not so, huh.

Well, I'd just like to explore a bit of the reasons for this. First of all, we seem to be in a closed loop. We have a belief, whether conscious or subconscious and then we have the behavior that represents the belief. If we change the behavior without changing the belief, it's only a matter of time before we manifest it again. In some cases, we'll just manifest it in a different way, but it will be the same thing! For example, a person who feels they are a guilty sinner will go to church and then they'll change church for a reckless lifestyle. Seems to me like they're both the same exact damn thing, unless you have your head in the sand!

The other way is changing the belief but keeping on with the same behavior, so now I'm not a guilty sinner, but I still live a reckless life, because freedom to me means doing whatever the heck I feel like doing. Now you've supposedly gone from believing you're a guilty sinner to believing you are entitled to mess creation up (especially the creation that you are!). Here, again you are in a NEW closed loop.

In the end, it doesn't seem like it's a matter of belief or behavior -- it seems like it's a matter of truth. What IS the truth?

And THIS is what I have found to be most difficult "thing" to find within oneself. A true, earnest desire for TRUTH. I can count with one hand the amount of beings that I know have a true, ripened passion for truth. Well, maybe that's not true, maybe I don't personally know anyone that has a true and ripened passion for truth, except for myself, which you might say might be inclined to respond to by saying that I'm just being arrogant or presumptuous, but it's really just the truth.

In my experience, instead of people being ardently passionate about truth, they seem to ardently loathe it!

Can this passion for truth be manufactured? It seems like it's not possible. In fact, it's not possible. How could you "manufacture" a love for TRUTH? It's a contradiction, wouldn't you say?

BUT... you never know, maybe reading this could awaken something? Who knows? Anyway, I didn't come up with this, but some wise, wise dude long ago said "You will know the TRUTH and the TRUTH will set you FREE."

Good luck! To you and to me!!!

What Frustrates Us Most

What frustrates us most is not the other, it is actually our distorted perception of the other that leads to conflicting emotions. When we perceive in another (either an individual, a group of individuals, a government, a nation or a planet) something we have decided that we do not like, we begin to experience internal conflict.

This conflict is a gift. The fruit of this gift is the opportunity to become more aware and to continue opening our hearts.

When we feel that another is responsible for our suffering, we have innocently gone into a dangerous trance. It is then that we must remember that only our misinterpretation can lead us to such a conclusion. This is when we should pause and investigate our beliefs to see what actually is going on.

For many of us this is a very difficult step. It can be so difficult that we might go into denial in order to avoid facing the difficulty of being fully responsible for our emotional state.

I have been frustrated for several years with my mother and my father. I have been persistently crafty in organizing a story where I am the victim of their ignorance. Every time I fall for this self-created illusion the only thing that ensues is psycho-emotional suffering. Such suffering is the precise alarm that reminds me to wake up and notice that I am out of balance and out of alignment with reality.

The truth is that all conflict and all peace exist within ourselves. The outside world is nothing less than our opportunity to discover the difference between what leads to peace and what leads to conflict. It all depends on our relationship with existence. Every time there is opposition, conflict occurs. Every time there is surrender, peace shines forth.

I am very aware that many of us may have a deep mistrust in surrender. We might be inclined to believe that unconditional surrender leads us to becoming a bunch of useless morons. If this turns out being the case for you, then true surrender has not happened. When one is disabled, it is due to opposition, not to surrender. When we fully surrender, we are totally empowered in the highest sense of the word. When we have truly surrendered we are flowing along with the Whole.

I invite you to explore the implications of total surrender -- as a hint, I can tell you that the evidence that you have truly surrendered is that you realize peace and gratitude, thus the vital energies flow easily through you (thereby empowering you). When you truly surrender... you are happy.

Lo Que Más Nos Frustra

Lo que más nos frustra no es el otro, es nuestra percepción acompañada de emociones conflictivas. Cuando percibimos en otro (ya sea un individuo, un grupo de individuos, un gobierno, una nación o un planeta) algo que hemos concluido que nos desagrada, comenzamos a sentir conflicto interno.

Este conflicto es un regalo. El fruto de este regalo es que nos da la oportunidad de hacernos más conscientes y abrir nuestros corazones aún más.

Cuando sentimos que otro es responsable de nuestro sufrimiento, hemos inocentemente caido bajo un trance peligroso. Es entonces cuando debemos recordar que sólo nuestra interpretación errada nos puede llevar a tal conclusión. Es entonces cuando debemos de pausar e investigar nuestras creencias a ver que es lo que verdaderamente está pasando.

Para muchos de nosotros esto es algo muy difícil. Puede ser tan difícil que hasta podríamos llegar a negar la realidad con el propósito de no enfrentar la dificultad que el ser completamente responsable pueda presentar.

He durado varios años frustrado con mi madre y con mi padre. Me he encargado de organizar un cuento en donde yo soy la víctima de su ignorancia. Cada vez que entro en el profundo trance psico-emocional sufro bastante. Es precisamente el sufrimiento que me indica que estoy fuera de balance, fuera de la alineación consciente con la realidad.

La verdad es que todo conflicto y toda paz existe dentro de nosotros mismos. Lo externo es simplemente una oportunidad para descubrir la diferencia entre la paz y el conflicto. Todo depende de nuestra relación. Cada vez que hay oposición ocurre el conflicto. Cada vez que hay entrega ocurre la paz.

Estoy muy consciente de que muchos de nosotros podemos pensar que la entrega incondicional nos convertiría en una partida de inútiles. Si ese es el caso, entonces no es entrega lo que ha ocurrido, cuando hay deshabilitación, hay oposición. Cuando hay entrega estamos empoderados en el máximo sentido de la palabra. Estamos fluyendo con el Todo.

Te invito a que investigues las implicaciones de la entrega total -- la evidencia de que te has entregado de verdad es la paz, la gratitud y la energía vital fluyendo con facilidad. Cuando estás verdaderamente entregado... eres feliz.

El Modus Operandi Del Hombre Actual

Es gracioso como los seres humanos bajo el trance del ego funcionamos -- nuestro sistema parece estar programado a creer fielmente en la promesa de que el futuro será mejor que el presente. Particularmente, creo que esta es una de las idiosincrasias humanas más interesantes. A mi entender, esta es una de las ilusiones más persistentes y potencialmente nocivas en la tierra.

Analicemos juntos la dinámica de esta creencia profunda. La creencia consiste en algo sencillo: "Ahora mismo las cosas no están suficientemente bien, pero en el futuro la situación estará mucho mejor." A esto le llamamos "esperanza."

Para tratar de ayudar al proceso que nos conducirá a un futuro "mejor," estudiamos, trabajamos y hacemos varios esfuerzos para producir el resultado deseado. Muy bien, esto es excelente. Pero, ¿cuáles son las limitaciones que pueden surgir de esta forma de operar? Bueno, sencillamente que el presente -- si no tenemos cuidado -- se convierte en algo que tiene menos valor que el supuesto futuro. El presente es sólo un medio que utilizamos para obtener un fin. El presente se puede comenzar a percibir como algo mediocre en comparación con el maravilloso futuro. Como podremos notar, esta es una situación que le abre paso fácil a los estados de desesperación, aburrimiento, ansiedad y a varias condiciones de inquietud.

¿Cómo podemos resolver este problema? Bueno, la solución parece ser obvia, lo que tenemos que hacer es alinearnos y mantenernos presentes, pero esto puede ser una tarea muy difícil para la mayoría de nosotros. Tendríamos que desprogramar y reprogramar el modus operandi al que la mayoría de humanos estamos habituados. Estamos acostumbrados a movernos en el mundo de esta manera que es tan común y apoyada por la sociedad (tanto así que es considerada benévola y fructífera). Al parecer ya tenemos nuestro subconsciente profundamente programado a perseguir el futuro y a menospreciar el presente.

Para comenzar a resolver el asunto, sugiero una práctica muy sencilla, pero que puede ser muy eficiente para algunos de nosotros. Aquí está:

1. Detente y date cuenta de la cantidad de años que has venido creyendo que un día las cosas van a estar "mejor," que un día vas a "llegar," que un día lo "lograrás."

2. Nota como esto todavía no ha ocurrido a pesar de que tienes varios años esperándolo. Nota como has vivido soñando con el "gran día," el "gran final," el "gran objetivo," la "gran fiesta," el "gran logro," la "gran demostración" por varios años. Date cuenta como este día no ha llegado.

3. Reconoce que este día nunca va a llegar.

4. Pausa y SIENTE los efectos de reconocer esta verdad. ¿Qué sientes?

Ves, siempre es ahora, entonces aunque logres o hayas logrado mil cosas, nunca llegará el futuro que persigues. ¿Entiendes?

¿Sientes alivio o te sientes desilusionado? Bueno, analicemos la palabra compuesta desilusión (des-ilusión)... la palabra implica que la ilusión se va de tu sistema. O sea, que lo ilusorio, lo falso se va de tu mente -- es como que despiertas de un sueño y descubres la realidad. ¿Podría haber felicidad en el presente? Para descubrirlo profundamente tendrás que estar dispuesto a desilusionarte totalmente. ¿Qué te parece?

He notado que cuando permitimos que la desilusión total nos ocurra, ocurre un cambio drástico en nuestro modus operandi. La atención se deposita más en el momento presente (en vez de un supuesto futuro). Ahora podemos encontrar lo que tanto anhelábamos en este instante y podemos trabajar para enriquecer el momento actual. Poco a poco vamos creando un "futuro" mejor. Con esta visión nos damos cuenta del sencillo hecho que siempre es, que siempre ha sido y que siempre será ¡AHORA!

"Un ser sin una onza esperanza no es un ser deprimido, es un ser que ha llegado."

The Obsession With The Dark

Call me a hypocrite, but I am obsessed with how obsessed with darkness and heaviness we are. We are obsessed with the “bad” news; our creative contributions can often be depressing, dark images, songs, poems and art in general. We just seem to completely dismiss the light. When we talk about something, it’s usually about the worst possible thing that happened; we are always talking about what gets us down, angry, upset and anything but light and zestful. It’s amazing!

Yeah, this note is more of the same, I get it… but sometimes you have to use a thorn to take out the thorn that got in your foot. Sometimes the antidote is the poison itself and that’s what this post is all about. I am so upset with how we reduce ourselves to poor, unworthy, hopeless victims. I am so upset at how we endlessly dwell on the dark and heavy side of life. I am not asking us to deny it either, that would just lead to a bunch of disconnected, immature morons, which would probably make matters worse. What I am saying is, can we keep our perspectives totally open? Can we include it all and not just focus on the heavy, gross bits? Can we expand our consciousness and awareness to include it all? Can we have it all?

I think we can, I know I have it all – the good, the bad, the so-so, the plain, the sophisticated, the everything, the nothing, the life, the death… all of it. What one can do, all can do. Do it! Let it ALL in! Come into alignment with the totality of what IS (notice I didn't say with what "should" be) – and MOVE.