Beyond the Mind

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The Holidays can be a very difficult time for many people.  It seems like whatever people are going through the Holidays magnify the intensity of it.  For people who feel lonely the Holidays can feel excruciatingly lonely.  For people trying to quit an addiction to alcohol or cigarettes or drugs the Holidays can make it about 1,000 times more difficult.  People dealing with a loss of some kind, be it a romantic separation or the loss of a loved one may find the Holidays to be more than they can handle.

If the Holidays this year are difficult for you in some way my heart goes out to you.  I hope that you can find the true healthy kind of comfort you need during this time.  May you find that certain something inside of you that meets you exactly where you are with gentleness, acceptance, love and compassion.  This might be an important time for you to do something extra special for yourself. Treat yourself to a massage or sauna or whatever feels like spoiling yourself in a healthy and loving way.  

This is a good time to practice being your own best friend and if you are alone this is the perfect time for this!   This best friend of yours knows everything there is to know about you and accepts it all, more than that, loves you completely.  Pretend you are your own best friend in this way and think “what would this best friend say to me right now?” … or … “what would this best friend and I do right now to make this time less depressing or painful?” … and make sure you say or do whatever comes to you.

Let this be your guiding question for this time and all times -
“What is the most loving thing I can do for myself right now?”

Whenever you are in pain or confused this question can be a life saver if you sincerely inquire with it and then take action based upon the answer that comes to you.  I have written a lot about saying YES to our pain.  This is always important, among many other things it takes the sting out of the pain.  Our minds can be very talented at adding insult to injury.  It’s hard enough in life to deal with the pain we have but then to wish it wasn’t there, to hate it only makes it worse.  When you REALLY GET THIS you will orient very differently to the pain you feel.

So, my friend, this one goes out to you -

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

-traditional gaelic blessing

Happy Holidays!

Tags: Spiritual Enlightenment, Spiritual Counseling, Spiritual Health, Spiritual Health Coaching, Spiritual Journey, Spiritual Growth, Spiritual Healing, Meditation, Life Coaching, Spirituality, Spiritual, Spiritual Awakening by Ralph
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I begin with a poem from Kabir.  This version of the poem is from Robert Bly’s The Soul is Here for Its Own Joy.  

The Time Before Death

Friend? hope for the Guest while you are alive.
Jump into experience while you are alive!
Think… and think… while you are alive.
What you call “salvation” belongs to the time before death.

If you don’t break your ropes while you’re alive,
do you think
ghosts will do it after?

The idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic
just because the body is rotten -
that is all fantasy.
What is found now is found then.
If you find nothing now,
you will simply end up with an apartment in the City of Death.
If you make love with the divine now, in the next life you will
have the face of satisfied desire.

So plunge into the truth, find out who the Teacher is, Believe in
the Great Sound!

Kabir says this: When the Guest is being searched for, it is the
intensity of the longing for the Guest that does all the work.
Look at me, and you will see a slave of that intensity.

________________________________________________

This poem might be a wake up call for many people and if it is one for you, congratulations.  Perhaps you are ready to take responsibility for your own salvation.  More and more people these days are not willing to have their salvation governed for them.  This is good news for these people and bad news for those who would use their supposed religious power to control the masses. In 1945 a scroll was discovered in Nag Hamadi, “The Secret Sayings of the Living Jesus,” i.e., The Gospel of Thomas.  The movie Stigmata references the most controversial saying of Jesus -

“The Kingdom of God is inside you and all around you,
Not in a mansion of wood and stone.
Split a piece of wood and God is there,
Lift a stone and you will find God.”

The more precise translation found on the Gnostic Society Library site is “If those who lead you say unto you: Behold, the Kingdom is in heaven, then the birds of the heaven will be before you. If they say unto you: It is in the sea, then the fish will be before you. But the Kingdom is within you, and it is outside of you. When you know yourselves, then shall you be known, and you shall know that you are the sons of the living Father. But if ye do not know yourselves, then you are in poverty, and you are poverty.”

Too bad people didn’t have access to these teachings over the past 1,900 years but luckily WE do.  You do not need a middleman to commune with God because you are a part of God.  You are swimming in God, God is within you and all around you.  To know yourself is to know god.  To find yourself here and now is to find yourself in the greatest cathedral ever built.  Become a slave of the intensity to know yourself in this way and you will meet the guest while you are still alive, then you will have the look of satisfied desire.

If you are celebrating Jesus’ birthday this year don’t forget to celebrate yours as well.  Your birth was no less significant.  Your true nature is worthy of just as much praise and worship and it is worth every effort you can make to know it more deeply NOW.

Happy Holidays to All!

Tags: Spiritual Enlightenment, Spiritual Counseling, Spiritual Health, Spiritual Health Coaching, Spiritual Journey, Spiritual Growth, Spiritual Healing, Meditation, Life Coaching, Spirituality, Spiritual, Spiritual Awakening by Ralph
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So much of my journey has been about observing how my mind is constantly saying NO in one way or another to how things actually are, right now.  The more I notice this in myself the more able I am to embrace and abide in reality.  The awareness gives me a choice I did not have without it.  I see so much of our energy going into fighting with reality, we waste so much time and effort trying to change circumstances or ourselves.  Change is good but incessantly trying to improve or change the way things are at the expense of our natural enjoyment of the NOW is a cycle that never ends. 

We are deeply seduced by the lie - the idea that if we just tried harder we could actually make things perfect, then we could finally relax and enjoy the moment.  We need to wake up from this lie or we may find ourselves old and tired and still not able to enjoy our lives, still pushing and fighting with the way things are.  We can become forever entranced by our darkly shaded lenses, those that insist on seeing what’s wrong rather than what’s right with the present moment.  We don’t need better lenses, we just need to take our glasses off altogether, to see the miracle of NOW.

It’s understandable that most of us are hypnotized in this way, there is very little support in our culture for developing our ability to simply BE, we must DO in this culture.  Our success is measured not only by what we DO but how many toys or props we have to prove that what we DO is valuable.  Our BEINGNESS is not valued, and in the process who we really are is not valued.  To feel that who we are is not valued is deeply painful, perhaps the deepest pain imaginable and it is the plague of our time.  We are afraid of this pain so rather than facing it we try to FIX it.  We attempt to DO more, ACHIEVE more.  Maybe THEN we will feel loved and valuable.  Only YOU can get off this train to nowhere, you must step off of this train my friend, jump if you have to.

I want to point out what I call the pain gap.  We all have desires and we all have things we don’t like and most of us try to get what we want and stay away from what we don’t want.  This is the average condition for most people but it starts turning sour when we feel pain and unhappiness because we don’t have what we want or because we have what we don’t want.  We are in the pain gap.  This gap is as wide as the distance between what we want and where we are right now and as deep as how far we wish we were AWAY from the situation we are in right now.

Again, it is “normal” to feel this way, but to be human and on planet earth this scenario is unavoidable most of the time.  Buddha did a fine job of pointing this out, i.e. the first noble truth.  Buddha also pointed out that it is possible to step out of this cycle of suffering.  We can close this gap, we can start saying YES to the way things are.  We can even start to CHOOSE things to be the way they already are.  When we are not getting what we think we want we can turn to this situation and say “I choose this, this is the dish that GOD (or reality or the universe or whatever works for you) is serving me right now, so I choose it, thank you.” 

This radical and revolutionary shift may feel strange at first and will feel impossible much of the time.  It is a practice.  It is a practice that requires the humility to say “I don’t know for sure what’s right for me and I don’t know why things are happening the way they are but since THIS is what’s happening right now, I will choose it”.  Byron Katie says the way things are IS the way they should be simply because they are the way they are.  This is simple, elegant and profound wisdom from her.  Saying things shouldn’t be the way they are is insane.  To fight with reality is insane, and my friend you will NOT win that battle.  Learn to yield to reality, this is not passivity, this is wisdom in action.

I am now offering Realizing Freedom sessions for those interested in exploring issues like this within themselves on a deep level.  Think of the many ways you find it impossible to say YES to your life.  These are the portals through we which we can journey together, to find the YES that is already inside of you, that exalted warrior within you, already free and passionately alive.

Surrender my friend, victoriously to your true master - REALITY

Tags: Spiritual Enlightenment, Spiritual Counseling, Spiritual Health, Spiritual Health Coaching, Spiritual Journey, Spiritual Growth, Spiritual Healing, Meditation, Life Coaching, Spirituality, Spiritual, Spiritual Awakening by Ralph
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