gratitude

Making friends with our own minds shows us that beneath even the darkest difficulty is the happiness of our true nature.

The question is, has the world gone nuts? It certainly looks like a lot of people are being driven by fear, hatred and greed. The rising anger and animosity, is to the detriment of us all. Is it not time for some real sanity?

At the Heart & Soul Center we first saw a woman we knew leaving with bruises all over her face. However, an Indian man quickly replaced her as he came towards us and introduced himself as Deepak Chopra.

When fear is in control we become resistant to change and spontaneity; we get angry and defensive, reinforcing separateness, isolation and enmity. Fear arises when the ego-mind is threatened, making us reject anything that is unfamiliar; in so doing we surrender our sensibility and compassion.

When someone is being dismissive, fault-finding or disapproving and this is making you feel unworthy, insecure, or lacking in self-esteem, then it may be because there’s a hook in you for that negativity to latch on too, a place where it can land that triggers all these hidden self-doubts.

We’ve already proven that war does not work, that fighting and killing in the name of religion, to wipe out an enemy, or to claim control never has a happy ending, always there is suffering and anguish and continued pain with no end in sight. The dualistic belief that there’s an ‘us’ and ‘them’ causes an endless no-win situation, blanketing our minds with ignorance.

Abhorrence towards others is based on the belief that we are all separate from each other, that we can hurt another without hurting ourselves, that I am more important than you. It breaks friendships and families, while creating self-righteousness and arrogance. Prejudice closes our heart and shuts down our sensitivity.

What we all so easily forget is that everyone experiences pain and suffering, not just us, and we don’t have to be someone special to be lovable, we are lovable just as we are. Being ordinary is OK! Being ordinary means not having to hog the limelight but having space for others, being able to wish them well without comparison or judgment; it means keeping our heart open even in the midst of pain.

Fight the urge to buy a tie or just pass over the day. Instead, make it personal, special – build or live the memory. The holiday may have been created by some greeting card marketing department, but its purpose can make us all aware that though dads are only people, we can see that there were times when they were actually more super than just human.

Greed, hatred and ignorance are the root causes of unhappiness. They can trick our minds into believing happiness lies anywhere other than within ourselves.

Mindfulness doesn’t necessarily change circumstances, rather it changes the way we perceive circumstances. So a mindful life might appear the same on the outside, while on the inside there is greater clarity and expansiveness. That difference may or may not translate into external changes.

  Life changes in a split second. Deb got up at 6:30am, went to the bathroom, and on the way back into the bedroom she tripped and fell. “I broke…

A Course in Miracles tells us that the world we see is inside out and upside down. We value the trivial and overlook the monumental. We are enamored with things and ignore people. We worship at the altar of limitation and forsake our potential. We live disconnected from the worthwhile and then wonder why we are in pain.

Can you resist the siren call of immediate gratification – when it comes to food, love, lust, money, Facebook, texting etc? Chances are if you’re having a problem right now in your life, it’s due to your needing to practice better impulse control. Read on…

My Love, we’ve been together so long, taking each other for granted day in, day out. But today, more than anything I desire one moment of communion. The treasure you…

The deeper the cut, the redder the blood. The deeper the experience, the richer the wisdom. It has always taken more time to reach the deep than the surface. And…

So how do we embody who we are really and connect with dignity, humanity and humility, both as individuals and as a human race?

No matter how hard we want to, there’s one thing we can never do and that’s change the past. We can weep, beat our fists against the wall, eat bags of cookies to assuage the guilt, but none of this will make the slightest bit of difference and certainly won’t make us feel any better. The past is gone, over, no more.

The mind is described as being like a monkey bitten by a scorpion and, just as a monkey leaps from branch to branch, so the mind leaps from one thing to another, constantly distracted. Then, when we come to sit still and begin to pay attention, we find all this manic activity going on and it seems insanely noisy. It’s actually nothing new, just that now we’re aware of it whereas before we were immersed in it, unaware that such chatter was so constant.

There’s too much fear and fighting going on in the world, between ISIS, Ebola, violent assaults and rape. We may feel completely powerless, unable to help, but perhaps the greatest thing we can do is to make friends with our own fear rather than blaming others.

It’s that time of year again when the holidays are over and life gets busy, your work load is picking up, kids are back at school, and autumn is beckoning.