Wolves

"If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world.

This makes it hard to plan the day."

— E.B. White

There is this old Cherokee story:

One evening beside the fire an old man is telling his grandson a story

“Inside every one of us, there are two wolves in a battle of life and death.

One white, pure and good, full of love, hope, joy, kindness, generosity, compassion, and faith.

The other one black as the night, evil, full of anger, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment and hate.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather:

"Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied,

"The one you feed the most."

I couldn’t agree more but things have changed a little bit since the Cherokee Indian times.

We now live in a society of "entanglement" where personal boundaries are more and more violated.

I wake up in the morning full of energy and enthusiasm

I take a shower, brush my teeth, do a quick meditation, eat breakfast and then proceed to the daily chores.

As long as I stay inside my house, I can control my life with no problems.

The moment I open the door – the physical one or the informational one– the outside world rushes in bringing with it the inevitable negativity.

It could be some well-intentioned friend emailing me about a swine flu pandemic in Europe or Asia, news of war, death, and destruction or economic and political disasters.

It could be some guy cutting me off on the freeway or my boss in a bad mood.

Some colleague with some petty office quarrel or a million other irritating, useless garbage.

You try to stay positive.

You try to be the loving and understanding “good” guy.

You turn the other chick, you make amends, you forgive and forget.

In the end, you end up tired and polluted.

You go home, take a shower, do your meditation and go to bed hoping the next day will be a better one.

I have walked some distance on the path of spiritual enlightenment and by now I know very well I shouldn’t feed the bad wolf inside me.

The problem is all the other people in my life that are feeding it.

It is impossible to go through the day without being bombarded with bad news and negativity. The whole society is built that way.

We are constantly manipulated by the media to live in fear and uncertainty because people in that mind state are easy to control and manipulate.

I know it sounds like one of these far-fetched conspiracy theories but I lived long enough in fear and worry and I heard one too many times that the sky is falling.

And after all these years here I am still kicking and screaming.

So what was all the fear and the worries I had for all these years? Absolutely nothing.

I spent precious energy and time on illusory dangers and disasters just to lose focus on what was important in my life.

Do you know, or can you imagine what your life would be like if every day you would hear only the good news, positivity and optimism?

Can you imagine how that would feel?

Unfortunately, we can only imagine because we will never live that reality.

So, how do we stop our negativity from growing, our dark wolf from being fed in a world where we have no power or control?

Very simple – you just don’t give a shit about all the bullshit.

I used to try to avoid people and places just to protect myself from the bombardment of negativity and I have failed. So I did the only other option I had, stand up and fight.

Whenever somebody approached me with “have you heard of…?” I pulled out my guns and fire “I don’t give a shit!” and pretty soon none of my friends was feeding my wolf anymore.

If you feel overwhelmed like I used to feel, you should try it

I don’t give a shit! It is totally liberating and empowering.

Perspective and Perception

There is a story of a little boy that grew up near a municipal airport.
Although, for his parents living next to an airport was a nuisance, and the only reason they bought the house at that location was the cheap price, for the boy living next to the airport was an amazing gift.
The boy would spend hours and hours watching the planes take off and land and when he was not doing that he was playing with his favorite plain toy.

One day when he was about 5-6 years old his parents announced that they would go on vacation and that they will fly a plane over there.
Needless to say, the boy was in heaven. He was super excited, not that much about the vacation but because for the first time in his life he’s going to fly on a plane. It was a dream comes true.

So, after what it fell an eternity and after a sleepless night, the big day arrived.
The little boy could hardly contain his excitement.
They took a taxi, they went through the TSA line, they waited at the gate and finally, they boarded the plane. Of course, the boy got the best seat by the window.

And here he was, after all the wait and anticipation the engines roar and the plane rolled to the tarmac.
The boy was glued face to the window.
Finally, with a rush and a rumble, the plane took off.

After a couple of minutes, the boy became very agitated. He was looking frantic at the window and then at the passengers on the plane.
-What’s wrong? Asked his mother
-Are we flying in the air? Ask the boy.
-Of course dear, we are up up up in the air. Isn’t this wonderful?
- Yes – said the boy – but when are we going to get smaller?

Of course, as adults, we know planes don’t get smaller when they fly, they stay the same size, only our perception changes.
We know things do not change they stay the same unless WE change them. Like getting in a car accident. That will definitively change the car.

So things do not change by themselves they are changed by the wear and tear of use or by accidents but if preserved, like some artifacts buried in the funeral chambers of the pyramids, they will last forever.
What about things that are not material like love, hope, luck, opportunity, dreams and aspirations, fears and hopes? Do non-material things change by themselves?

We have a tendency to believe that immaterial, ideal, things change by themselves, A classical example is luck. When somebody wins something we believe their luck has changed. But is it the luck that has change or the person?
We say that things like opportunities will come our way. But is it that the opportunities are moving or that opportunities have always been there and we are moving towards them?

Do things come our way or do we move towards them or away from them?
This is a fundamental question and depending on how you answer it you will give yourself control over your life or take control away.
Things do not change unless we change them and that rule applies to all things material and ideal
Most people will not agree with that because deep down to their core they are afraid to take the responsibility for their lives.
People will live in the superstition of luck and destiny. They will look at life like the little boy looking at the planes. They will say things like “look at that successful person, how lucky they are” but are the people getting lucky or is just our perception that it does?

Once you take control of your life and realize that things will not come your way, that you have to move towards the things you want, your life will start changing.
People that are following their dreams will find themselves getting lucky, having people and opportunities coming their way having answers and solution to their problems magically appear at the right time.

But that is just a perception, Things do not change. All the opportunities, the people the money, the  luck, the answers and solution to your problems  as well as the bad luck the traps and accidents the negativity and all the wrong answers are already existing out there
Getting them come your way or not is a matter of you walking towards or away from them.

 It is a matter of you moving instead of waiting for things to move your way.

The Pearl of Wisdom

This is the story of little Ozzy.

He was the 4456th son of Mother of Pearl and of all his brother and sisters he was the smallest oyster in the bunch.

He was always a little slow – as oysters go – and nobody thought he would accomplish anything in life.

As expected, when the time came to pearl out little Ozzy turned out to be a failure.

All his brothers and sisters proudly displayed their pearls but no matter how hard he tried little Ozzy came out empty.

He was the laughing stock of the oyster culture and ashamed of himself he decided to run away and save his family from the humiliation.

One dark night he sneaked out and went into the open ocean.

When the first rays of the sun started shining, tired of pulling his shell all night, he stopped by a big rock and started sobbing.

- Hey! What’s with the crying?

It turns out that the rock was just an old turtle doing his morning meditation.

- I am a total failure and disgrace to my family. I am an oyster without a pearl.

Would you please eat me and put me out of my misery?

- Well, I am a vegetarian – said the turtle – But I tell you what.

I will give you the pearl of wisdom so you wouldn’t be a pearless oyster anymore.

- The pearl of wisdom, what is that? – asked Ozzy

- It is the most magnificent, amazing, perfect pearl in the ocean. - said the turtle.

It will give infinite wisdom to anyone that wears it. Just open up and say aaa!

As Ozzy open up his shell the turtle picked up a round pebble and shoved it in.

- How do you feel? – Asked the turtle

- Wow! That feels great, big and heavy. I shell go back and made my family proud.

- Wait, wait! You cannot go back to your family. – Said the turtle.

- This is a magic pearl and if you show it to anyone it will turn into a rock.

Very disappointed but very happy at the same time, little Ozzy thanked the turtle and left to look for his fortune in the underwater world.

He decided to be a monk and spend the rest of his life helping the poor and the sick.

Ozzy went from place to place imparting his new found wisdom to anyone he met.

Soon his reputation and fame grew and creatures from all over the ocean, the poor and the rich, the humble and the powerful, came seeking his wise advice.

He was a great teacher and counsel and many generations of disciples followed him.

In time his pearl of wisdom became legend.

After years and years of travel, feeling that his end is near Ozzy decided to go back home.

News of his return traveled fast and all the oysters, his brother and sisters and his little nephews were waiting with great anticipation.

It was a triumphant return and they gave him the highest honors.

They all gather around in the town square to listen to his life story.

At the end, his nephews shouted.

- Uncle Ozzy can we see the pearl of wisdom, can we see it pleeease?

Oh, what the heck. Said Ozzy to himself. After all, I don’t need it anymore.

So he opened up its shell for the first time since he had met the turtle.

And there it was, whiter and more radiant than the angels' skin, glowing in brilliant radiance:

The most magnificent, amazing, perfect pearl in the ocean.

Demolition Zen

Zen will tear you apart, deconstruct and shred you to pieces, demolish every belief and piece of knowledge to the depths of your mental foundation, obliterate you and reduce you to NOTHING.

So now you know where that Zen obsession with nothing and emptiness stems from.

It is a Zen necessity a  primordial directive a must without Zen will not make any sense.

If that is not your Zen experience then you are doing it the wrong way or you are not  doing Zen but some sort of Westernized version of some Buddist  and Vedic superstitions wrapped up by the New Age gurus as Zen and marketed to the hyp crowd, cause you may say anything about Zen but one thing will all agree: Zen is cool and fashionable.

Of course, the process is maddeningly painful and only a half-crazed men will choose to go the whole way thru with his own mental suicide.

So the Zen experience, like any other suicide missions is strictly on a voluntary basis. 

Not only that but you will, have to beg for it and a true Zen master very rarely accepts a student and usually only after he has subjected the student to a lot of humiliating tasks.

But if self inflicted pain is not your thing, like I mention before, there are a lot of pseudo-spiritual practices out there from organized religion that for a small donation of your money will give you permission to any sin you may desire to commit from adultery to rape and murder and after that give you a free pass to heaven.

 Or you can go with the New Age crowd which is a lovely colorful spiritual circus under which tent the most bizarre freaks have gathered.

You can play with crystals, groovy music and sound frequencies collared lights and even some mushrooms and LSD trips cause the New Age motto is “Anything Goes” the more bizarre and irrational the better.

And of course, there is the “serious” scientific side of spirituality. The MD crowd.

Here we have the Ph.D. professors in psychology, the shrinks, a whole spectrum of therapists, family counselors and anything else that could squeeze under the cover of “scientific” authority.

Also, they have some really good drugs and as one that has been a patient I have to tell you that’s the only good thing about psychiatrists, they can hook you up with some really powerful shit.

So all these non-Zen paths can be summarised by the defining philosophy “we want to make you feel good”

This philosophy comes from the totally erroneous conclusion that pain is a problem and therefore getting rid of pain is the good mental and spiritual practice.

Here is the bummer. Pain is not a problem. It has never and will never be a problem. 

Pain and suffering are the symptom and as such not treatable, because treating a symptom will only make the problem worse.

I don’t want to brag about this but Buddha the original 100% genuine one lord Siddhartha Gautama Shakyamuni  Buddha, was the first modern psychiatrist and the one and only that understood that pain and suffering are the symptoms of internal inheriting human problem the “dukkha”  the noble truth of suffering AKA desire, craving, addiction, clinging etc

And the first one to develop a cognitive therapy based system to deal with this problem: “The eightfold path”

Have you ever had to rebuild your house? Maybe smaller like remodeling your kitchen?

OK even if you have not personally done it you are familiar with the process.

A bunch of men come in your kitchen and basically destroy your kitchen, tear everything down and the haul out all the old cabinets, appliances an all the debris generated during the demolition process.

Then when everything is cleared to the bare bone they go in and build the kitchen of your dreams.

So this process, this cycle of destruction and construction is very well understood in the construction business and no contractor no matter how stupid will tell you that you can remodel your kitchen while still keeping your old appliances and furniture. It is just common sense.

But not for the people involved in spiritual and mental growth

The cycle of destruction and rebirth was known to mankind since ancient times. Why do you think we celebrate Christmas. Yeah, I know the Jesy story but that is just plain BS. The Catholic church ripped off the pagan celebration of death – winter equinox – and rebirth – spring equinox and made it into their own ritual, hence the existence of  Christmas trees, the Easter bunnies and eggs, pagan symbols of life perpetuity and fertility still remaining in the rituals to our days.

It is interesting that in India the cult of  Kali and Lord Shiva the destructive and respective constructive were at one tie on equal footing although today the followers of Kali are dismal and dimming down under the overwhelming propaganda of  love peace and happiness BS

Mother Kali the destructive principle given birth to the lord of creation, Lord Shiva, what a profound mind-blowing understanding of the universe. 

Too bad we discard it because it didn’t sound “nice” and it irritates our sense of morality.

So going back where we began:

Zen will tear you apart, deconstruct and shred you to pieces, demolish every belief and piece of knowledge to the depths of your mental foundation, obliterate you and reduce you to NOTHING.

And in the place of your retched Ego will erect a structure of light, harmony, and beauty.

But then again enlightenment like house remodeling is a very expensive business proposition and not everybody is willing to pay the price.

The Tao of Internet

"Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth."
Ludwig Börne

If the internet would have a counterpart in the physical world it would be undoubtedly Las Vegas.
Las Vegas is sold to the public at large on the idea of winning money and adult entertainment.
If you want to win or sin (or both) you ought to go to Las Vegas. - Right?
He, he, he!

Well, the next time you go to Las Vegas take a good look at the luxurious casinos and all that glitter around you.
Then say out loud to yourself:
- All this has been built with the money of the people that have come to Las Vegas to win!

Las Vegas might be trumpeted as the win and sin capital of the world but, there is very little wining and sinning going on in Las Vegas (unless you own a casino) – trust me on that, been there done that :)
Las Vegas was built on the mechanics of losing.
Actually, it exists only because losing is guaranteed – it is built into the system.
BTW – They do not keep it a secret and publicly admit to it – they are crooks but they are honest :)

So what about the Internet and the Las Vegas parallel?
Well, the internet is sold to the public at large on the idea of connecting people. - Right?
But if any of you are on the internet looking for human connection, true love or just old fashion sex, you might as well go to Las Vegas to win some money!

The internet is sold as a connecting device but every time you connect to the internet you are disconnecting from reality
Behind every slot machine, there is a person looking for winning money
Behind every computer screen, there is a lonely human being looking for human contact.
You are completely mistaken. The system doesn't work for you, you are working for the system.

There is very little human connection on the internet :(
If you are on the internet right now (Well, you ought to be – you are reading my blog. Duh!)
Take a good look at the empty room and say out loud to yourself:
- There is nobody here except me!
No, I am not here at this moment – unless by a remote chance and even then I am here with me not with you.

Surfing the internet is one of the loneliest human activities, probably second only to masturbation – but not as lonely as surfing and masturbating at the same time – trust me on that, ahem… so I heard :)
The internet was built on the principle of people being apart. If you are with another person or group of people the internet becomes useless.
The internet is booming because the people don't get together like they used to do in the old days.

Every day we rush home or to the office to get in “touch” with the other people rushing to their computers.
But are the facebooks and the blogs, the myspaces, and tweeters actually increasing your human contact in the physical world?
Has the internet helped you getting together with more people or just to create an illusion of that gain?
Do you have more “real” friends since the internet revolution or less?

Is there no better way to disconnect from life than sitting in front of a computer
There is no better way to be alone in public as looking into your smartphone
Are the internet and the new technologies the bridge to human contact, or the wall that keeps us apart?
Are we building a new society a new human consciousness?
Are we evolving into cybernetic organisms or devolving in a source and servants for a higher nonhuman civilization to come?

I don't know - you be the judge!

Back to Basics II

Meditation is one of the most popular practices in the world.  It extends across the boundaries of beliefs, religions, and dogmas and it is practiced by billions of people, Buddhist, Hindus, Muslims, Christians and even by Atheists.

It is also one of the few spiritual practices that have been scrutinized and validated by the scientific community. 

The numerous positive benefits of meditation are widely known and documented but we are not going to elaborate on that aspect here, or maybe we will, but another time.

What I really want to talk about is the practical aspect of meditation and in particular some of the more problematic and misunderstood aspects.

People starting the Buddhist practice usually come from other backgrounds, Christian, Jewish come to mind, and they are usually either disappointed by the unsatisfactory answers their former religion give. Like “What was God doing during the Holocaust?” 

Or does a guy that rapes and murders a child goes to heaven if he accepts Jesus as his savior? 

Or they are looking for a practical solution to their worldly problems like people suffering from drug addiction, anxiety, depression etc.

Unlike the religions that offer you heaven but only after you are dead Buddhism offers peace of mind and ease of human suffering right here and now.

Because their religious background students starting the practice of Buddhism put a lot of emphasis on the dogmatic side and less on the pragmatic side which is totally wrong.

To truly understand Buddhism a student should start by understanding what Buddhism is and who Budda was. It should be a mandatory requirement that all Buddhist students should read “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse before studying any of the holy books and sutras.

There are some major points not mentioned in the holy texts and that the teachers, Gurus will not mention to the students like the fact that After studying for thirty years with the best teachers India had all that Buddha got was disappointment and disillusionment and that only after meditating for forty days and nights under the bodhi tree Gautama awaken and attained enlightenment.

Buddhism is something that you do like cooking. 

You may study as many cookbooks you want you are not going to become a chef unless you get in the kitchen.

Yet the Gurus insist on pushing the students on the scholastic path to enlightenment which takes you to nowhere. 

I have met people that have studied Buddhism for 10 -20 -30 years and when I asked them how long till the end of the path they gave me the BS answer that is not the destination but the journey.

That is Ego talk defending the Egotrip, not the eternal soul seeking liberation from the material world. But will leave that discussion for another blog.

So probably you are wondering how much scholastic knowledge does one needs to attain enlightenment. 

The answer is zero, zilch, nada. 

The scriptures are like maps and very confusing because nobody seems to agree on the topology of the human spirit and how to navigate it. 

Even without a map if you keep wandering around you may accidentally find enlightenment, even if that wasn’t your intention at all. 

Pick up this book at your local library “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle. 

This is the real account of a spontaneous enlightenment. The guy is real and the even is real, you have to trust me on that. 

But be careful although the event was 100% genuine the way he translates his experience has some major flaws. Once again will maybe talk about that another time.

Back to meditation. 

Short of having a spontaneous enlightenment or a near-death experience the only tried and trusted path to enlightenment is MEDITATION.

So let’s start talking what meditation is. 

To me is the process of awakening. 

I hate labels because people confuse the labels with the reality and getting attached to words makes us miss the meanings.

The process of awakening is a journey from point A the material, dualistic Ego reality and prison of reason to point B the non-dualistic ideal plan of the spirit and free unbounded, infinite existence.

I will not bore you with my 35 years of trial and errors so let’s go directly to the good stuff.

STEP 1 – Shutting down the rational – reasoning Ego mind. 

We are all familiar with the disease plaguing humanity of constant mental chatter AKA rumination. This constant incessant brain activity is the reason for many human mental conditions and just by learning this first step anybody will be greatly rewarded.

The principle behind shutting down the reasoning mind is the fact that the brain can only process one task at the time. 

Multitasking is a misnomer we do not multitask we just switch between tasks really fast giving us the illusion that we are actually doing two or many tasks at the same time.

If you don’t, believe me, there is a very easy way to blow away that misconception 

Next time you feel like you are multitasking start counting backward from 5000 to 1 

That will stop your multitasking dead in its tracks.

So how do you stop your mind from reasoning? 

Very simple you find something to keep your mind preoccupated like watching the clouds drifting in the sky, the flow of a small creek or the flickering flame of a candle. All those things and much more like that are very good mental relaxation techniques and like I said very beneficial in destressing, alleviating anxieties etc etc.

For our practice, however, I found out the most effective method way of quieting the mind is OM chanting. 

You can find OM Buddhist chanting on youtube and can download it on your computer and from there put it on an MP3 player or a smartphone.

Before going to sleep play the OM chant. Join in the chant. 

Note: You don’t have to hit the perfect note or keep up a certain length just find a comfortable tone of your voice that will harmonize with the voices of the monks. 

I recommend you practice only this step until it feels natural to you. Don’t worry if you fall asleep and don’t try to force to stay awake. 

Remember the only purpose of this practice is to quiet the mind nothing less nothing more. I am emphasizing this because the meditation is a naturally progressive chain and if you don’t master the first step the following steps will fail. Also once you master the first step the second step will fall in naturally.

STEP 2 – Contemplation. 

Although we have stopped the mind chatter chanting OM is actually still a brain process so if we keep chanting we are stuck at that level forever so while the OM chant is still playing you drift out from the active chanting, this should happen naturally and when its happening you just let it be. 

You switch your focus to a contemplative mode you are there as a witness with no other agenda other than letting it be. 

Things will start happening, actually, the things are always happening but this time you will become aware of your subconscious mind activity. 

In the beginning, your Reason mind will try to pop out of its inactive mod and try to grab, dissect and judge what’s going on. 

No need to panic just go back to the OM chanting and calm her down. 

You should keep your practice at level two until you are not experiencing any of those pop-ups. 

Like I said once mastered the level you will naturally be attracted to the next level.

STEP -3 Detachment. 

Like I said do not get attached to the labels you need to understand the principle behind the label, II just call it detachment because that is what resonates in my mind. 

So when you are in step 2 CONTEMPLATION you are witnessing your reality as you are watching a movie. 

You have to understand that at this point there are two entities involved The Observer and the Observed. 

Step 3 DETACHMENT is a step in which that difference is erased. 

You should naturally move in a mind experience where there is no observer and observed or that you are both. 

This will translate into a detachment from your corporeal existence. 

Some people in the new age spirituality will call it out of body experience, third eye opening etc etc. IT DOESN”T MATTER. The words mean nothing. The only important thing is that you understand what was going on. At this point, your consciousness is expanding beyond the limits of your physical existence.

Note: The first step is always the shortest, The second will be longer but not extreme, The third step is usually the longest. You are exploring the vast regions of consciousness and that is a lot of exploring to do. So be patient enjoy the experience and as always don’t force anything.

And finally 

STEP 4 -Transcendence. 

Although in step 3 you have escaped the limits of self you are literally still in the dualistic reality you are still not free of the concept of self. 

Step four is where you are going to die, The construct of self has to vanish before you can become one. 

You know that joke about the Buddhist monk asking the hot dog vendor “make me one with everything”? This is it. This is the place where the AWAKENING and subsequently the Enlightenment happens. 

How do you do it? 

I don’t know I haven’t passed that threshold yet but when I'll do it I’ll let you know.

Good luck with your practice. 

Be patient an persistent. You should do your meditation religiously every night before bedtime. 

You may practice it anytime as many times you want but pushing it will not work or make it faster it will be exactly the opposite making it longer So you practice once in the evening every day without exception or excuses and whenever you feel its right and natural.

Good luck and if you reach enlightenment first  I’ll be your first student!

Back to Basics I

I am a very practical man and as I am getting older and have less and less time on my hands to waste, anything I do has to have a purpose and it has to work, to give results, in order to be worthy of my time.

So, I don’t care if it is the Bible, the Quran or the Buddhist sutras, I am expecting that the teachings they impart to be beneficial to my life and if they don’t then too bad because I’m not putting up with the BS anymore.

So instead of concentrating on holy texts and books, as I use to do when I was young, I now concentrate on my practice, my meditation, my affirmations, and visualization.

I found out that you don’t need a Bible to talk to God. He will talk to you anytime you want. 

You just have to learn how to do it, how to stop listening to your mind chatter, stop listening to your Ego, and create the mind silence in which God can address you and can be heard.

I know it sounds simple, maybe too simple but believe me it is much harder when you meditate and actually are trying to stop the chatter in your mind.

So, let me share with you some of the things I found out from my daily practice.

Prayer, meditation, chanting, mantras, yoga etc etc are just names for the same process we are trying to affect in our subconscious mind. 

Basically, there are two things we can do: Erase old programming or write new programming. Obviously, we want to erase the “bad” programming and add “good” programming but as you know hell is paved with good intentions and sometimes things turn out just the opposite to what we want to accomplish.

By practicing forgiveness, thanks giving, gratitude, charity, and compassion we can remove some of the negativity we have accumulated. 

By practicing affirmations, visualizations, hypnosis or self-hypnosis or NLP we can introduce new programming in our life. 

Most people just do one of the two without realizing that you have to do both and not in just any random fashion but in this precise order: First, erase then re-write.

It is essential to first decide what we want to accomplish and make a plan on how we are going to accomplish it rather than jumping in and do a lot of things in the hope that something will work.

Like I said if you don’t know what are you doing you can end up screwing yourself up and trust me I’ve seen some very fucked up “spiritual” people.

The other thing you have to know before actually doing anything is the “language level match” principle.

It states that in order to communicate you have to speak the same language with the one you are trying to communicate with. It sounds so basic that many people don’t even consider it.

So, let me ask you what language does your subconscious speak? English, French, Chinese? Whatever your answer is it is probably wrong because the subconscious doesn’t speak an abstract language like words or images. 

The only things that our subconscious understands are emotions and feelings.

If the words of your affirmations and the images of your visualization do not trigger any emotions it is exactly like saying blah, blah, blah to your subconscious.

In order to make your affirmations and visualization work, you have to find the words that trigger the desired emotions in us.

 There is no given script since the same words trigger differently in different people but you can read some affirmations or listen to some on YouTube and make notes of how you respond emotionally or you can try the old method of trial and error,

 Just experiment with your affirmations and take my advice, do not assume anything just go wildly random.

The second and maybe the most important IMO is the meditation practice but for that, you’ll have to read my next post. 

Until then good luck with your practice!

Love Love

Love has a very bad reputation.

Love has been accused, put on trial found guilty and condemned for a crime it has never committed.

That crime has been written in books and poems, sung in songs, painted in paintings and depicted in movies so much that it is taken for granted.

Love is a heartbreaker.

But has Love ever break your heart?

Don’t just jump to the answer. Before saying “YES” think about it.

Have you ever had so much love that it actually broke your heart?

No? I didn’t think so.

Love never broke any heart.

We broke it and instead of pleading guilty, blame it on Love

First of all, we don’t know what Love is.

You may think what it is but your puny infatuation and libidinous lust are not love.

You have to go to an animal shelter and rescue an abused or abandoned dog.

Only people that have done that know what Love is.

Only an animal can love unconditionally

We, humans, can’t.

We used to know what unconditional love was, but then we became “civilized” and losing Love was part of the price for the “civilized life”

The promise of “civilization” to make our lives better was a lie.

Instead, we have become slaves to the “civilization”, to the system.

I remember when my daughter was born.

I was in love from the first second I saw her face.

I thought I knew what love was but I was wrong.

I would have given her everything, my blood my organs my life, but not my unconditional love.

She was about 2 years old. I was ready to go to work when she came to the door and grabbed my leg.

-          Daddy, please don’t go! She said with big wet eyes.

Did you know what I did? I turned around and went to work while she watched me with tears rolling down her face.

She was 2 and I broke her heart. I broke her heart, not Love.

Don’t give me the bullshit that love has broken the heart s of the people you loved.

That you have never done it.

Love has never broken a heart.

It is time we set the record straight. It is time to atone for our crimes.

Before it is too late we have to remember, learn how to love unconditionally.

Before we lose our humanity completely we have to bring it back in our lives in our society.

I think it is time to let the machines do the work and for us to return doing what we were supposed to be doing in the first place.

Let’s put back Love in the formula of our society

Life, Love, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

We are not Humans

We are not humans, and I don’t mean we are more or less assholes, I mean we are NOT humans.

Being human is an illusion, a dream a falsehood programmed in our brains by social conditioning.

This error is the only reason we can judge, dislike, discriminate, hate, torture and kill another human being.

It is this false belief that there is an I and a YOU, a US and a THEM.

This disconnect, this anomaly that tells you that, is called the Ego.

The Ego is the reason we believe we exist independent of everything else.

Not to state the obvious but we are just “embryos” living in mother’s Gaia womb like unborn fetuses.

Without her loving protection and nourishment, we wouldn’t last a minute and that is a scientific fact not a figure of speech.

Yet we don’t give a damn about the pillage and destruction we perpetuate every day to the very thing that gives us life.

What makes the Ego think he is the most important thing, the center of creation, that everything in the universe revolves around “ME”?

Being “human” is an act, our bodies mere costumes, the world just a stage where the very complicated drama with billions of actors is playing for millennia.

You did not create yourself, you did not create your character and nobody else is taking that credit.

So who is the actor behind your act?

We are mere waves on the surface of an ocean of consciousness.

We are divine and nature and human only in form.

We ebb and flow and each time we forget where we raised from and where our journey will return us.

Birth and death are not beginnings and ends, they are just costume and role changes, but behind every human experience, the actors remains the same.

I once asked a Rabbi  “What was God NOT doing when six million Jews were butchered in the concentration camps?”

He could not answer me because he saw himself as “human”

He told me that a “human” cannot understand Gods plans.

I told him “God died six million times. And you cannot see or comprehend God as long as you see yourself separate from me, and us from HIM.”

No Regrets

Living your life with regrets is like driving a car looking in the rearview mirror.

You may have good intentions, think positive thoughts and envision a better future but the “aim” of your actions will be determined by your view.

It is all the could have, should have, regrets that are guiding your course, not the I am and I will.

We all have made mistakes, we all are making mistake and we will continue to make mistakes no matter how hard we try to avoid it.

Life is a continuous learning process and just when you think you have figured it out it will throw a new challenge at you. So don’t sleep on your laurels and don’t expect boredom in your future.

As long as you live life is a constant challenge.

But that is not a problem. I love challenges and I don’t understand the people that go out of their way to avoid them, to do nothing.

I don’t agree either with the people that work all the time and never stop to smell the roses.

I mean after hard work and struggle everybody deserves a vacation.

I also believe that the only bad experiences are the experiences from which we have learned nothing.

And that seems to be the big problem; we keep on making the same mistakes again and again.

These bad experiences accumulate in our mind, in our memory, as negative luggage as regrets and after a while, these regrets will drag us down.

So from time to time it is necessary to go through this negative burden and throw it out of our mind any regrets we may have.

You should live your life with no regrets.

Whatever you have done you have done. The past cannot be changed no matter what you do.

The only thing in your control is our present and in how we handle this present is the secret of our future. So stop driving your life looking in the rearview mirror. It is just a recipe for more accidents to come.

There is an interesting study done by the phycology department at Cornel University.

The researchers have looked at videos of Olympic medal ceremonies and compare the way the winners reacted.

You would expect the happiness to be tied to the value of the medal but your assumption would be wrong.

Of course, the gold medal winner will be happy but to everybody’s surprise, it was the bronze medal winner that was most excited and the silver medal winner that was the list excited. Why is that?

We look at ourselves by comparing us with the other people around.

The bronze medal winner is looking down. One second less one small difference and he could have not been an Olympic medalist.

The silver m medalist, however, is looking up. He is thinking one second, one minute difference and  I could have been the gold medal winner.

It is the regrets that take all the joy out of our experiences.

We torture ourselves with “I should have” and “I could have” while keeping the same mistakes again.

I remember an incident in my high school years.

We were having a dance ball.  It was an annual tradition for our school to invite the neighbor high school which happened to be a girls-only high school.

Needless to say that all the boys in my school were looking forward to this dace.

I can still see us, the boys, aligned on one side of the ballroom and all the pretty girls aligned on the opposite side.

The music started and with the exception of a few boyfriend-girlfriend couples, nobody was brave enough to invite the girls to dance.

I started making fun of all my colleagues. I was the unofficial class jocker and it was my duty to ridicule them.

I was having fun calling them names until one of them fired back. “If you are so smart and brave why don’t you do it?

I realized there was no way out so I did the best I could think of.

I said I’ll go and ask a girl to dance but no matter what happened they all had to go and ask one girl to dance. They also had no choice but to accept the challenge but to make it even harder for me they asked to pick the girl I have to invite.

So they picked out what they thought was the most beautiful girl guaranteed to refuse me and shut me down.

Here I was walking to a certain defeat and humiliation but determined to do it just to take them down with me.

I reach the girl and blurred out the prepared invitation and to my shock, she said yes!

So here I was slow dancing with the most beautiful girl in the room looking at my friends looking at me from the side. Life couldn’t have been more wonderful.

So I learn a very important lesson that evening: It is better to regret making a decision than to regret never making that decision.

It was a very good lesson and it served me well in all my youth and young adulthood but somehow somewhere I lost it.

I became fearful of the future or just too complacent, too lazy. I got stuck into a dead end job and inevitably found myself on an unemployment line.

I let regrets taking over my emotional life and pretty soon worries and negativity joined in to take me down to the deepest darkness of depression.

Do not let regrets of the past determine your future.

If you have any regrets write them down. Look at the list and for each regret write next to it the lesson you have learned. Post that list on a visible spot on your desk or where it would be impossible not to see it every day.

At the top of the list write in bold capital letters:

I WILL LIVE MY LIFE WITH NO REGRETS

Words to live by

If you are not willing to learn, nobody can help you.

If you are determined to learn, nobody can stop you.

Action without knowledge is futile and knowledge without action is useless.

Don’t despise what you’ve been through. You needed the lesson

All things happen for a reason.

God made you for a reason. Your task is to find out why.

When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free.

You don’t need a new day to start things over; you need a new mindset.

Only two people are happy in this world: The mad man and the child.

You have to be a mad man to achieve what you desire and to be a child to enjoy what you have.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

You cannot control what life throws in your path but you can always control how you react.

Pain is unavoidable; suffering is your choice.

The key to being happy is knowing you have the power to choose what to accept and what to let go.

No! You cannot have the cake and eat it too.

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.

The “old you” has to die and a “new you” has to be born in order to change

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

At the end of life you will not regret the mistakes you have done but the mistakes you have not done

Rather than always focusing on what’s urgent, learn to focus on what’s really important.

The Ego says “once everything fall into place, I’ll find peace”

The Spirit says  “find peace and everything will fall into place”

What would you do if you knew today was the last day of your life?

The deeper the darkness; the brighter the light of God.

You cannot win an argument with an ignorant person. Only an intelligent person can accept a new idea.

Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.

Is better to have an intelligent enemy than a stupid friend.

Challenges is what makes life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.

Don’t practice until you get it right.  Practice until you can’t get it wrong.

The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.

A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.

Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.

Never lie to someone who trusts you.

Never bite more than you can chew.

Never say never

The Nature of Hell

I was a very young boy growing up on my grandparent’s farm when I had my first thoughts about “Hell”

My grandmother, a very religious woman’ used to take me every Sunday morning to church, to the Greek Orthodox church to be more specific.

I hated everything about that experience. Starting with the Sunday clothes and shoes that were stiff and uncomfortable to my young body use to run almost naked all summer long.

The nauseating smell of burning candles and incents would be the second on my list – I still have a bad reaction to burning candles and I had to explain my aversion several times, which will kill any romantic mood)

And last but not list the depictions of hell that orthodox churches are famous for – If you are not familiar with the paintings you may want to Google it.

Anyway, the whole setup was designed to put the fear of God in my young heart and make me an obedient church follower.

But the whole thing backfired because instead of becoming a zealot I became a rebel and choose not to have anything to do with the orthodox church.

The second time I seriously thought about hell was sometimes in 2012 when I had the fortuitous encounter with chronic depression and when I call it fortuitous I.m not being sarcastic, let’s just say for now that, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

It was one night right before going to bed, I put on my PJs brush my teeth and was ready to go to bed. I was by the door where I turned off the light and suddenly from one dark corner of the room a shadow pilled off and although it was dark in the room this shadow was so dark, darker than dark so I could distinctively see its humanoid silhouette.

That shadow attacked me and although there were no words exchanged I knew instinctively that it wanted to kill me. It grabbed my heart and I felt this sharp pain in my chest. 

My breathing stopped and I don’t know how I managed to flip the lights back on and the shadow dissolved in the light and when I say dissolve I mean like smoke blown by the wind, not like a sudden disappearance.

After that, I only went to bed with a nightstand light on although my friends give me a bible a crucifix and holy water nothing helped but that light. Maybe because I don’t have much faith in the church, so if you have a similar problem I wouldn’t say don’t try it if it works for you, do it.

That close encounter of the evil kind made me think seriously about Hell. What is Hell and where would be Hell located?

According to the Bible and pretty much all other religious texts Heave is located in the sky ad Hell is somewhere below us.

If you think about it, it makes complete sense.

The Heaven is an ideal ethereal place were old age, disease or physical pain do not exist.

On the other end, Hell has to be located in the material world otherwise how are you going to experience physical pain?

Earth is the only place where you can burn, bleed, drawn, be tortured, raped, abused, starved and generally speaking experience all imaginable pain and suffering?

I mean if you don’t have a physical body how are you going to experience physical pain?

So, the only unresolved mystery about Hell remains the location. Good news I figured that out.

Hell is in Australia that is if you live in North America if you live in Australia it will be the opposite.

Tadah!

I know hard to believe but I figured that out too.

We don’t believe in Hell on Earth because we don’t fully accept or understand the nature of Hell.

The nature of Hell is punishment, not retribution.

In other words, we believe that we should be punished for the crimes we have done not for being a sinner.

For example, you stole a car then a car should be stolen from you.

You beat up somebody. somebody should beat you up

You cheated on your spouse your spouse should cheat on you.

But that is not punishment that is retribution

If you stole a car and the same thing happens to you and you knew why it wouldn’t be much of a punishment. You would simply accept it as a fair punishment, but when you get lung cancer and you have never smoked in your life then it is very painful. 

Then you ask yourself why is this happening to me? You demand an answer and because you don’t get an answer you get mad at God, not at yourself.

If this doesn’t make it clear let me explain the nature of Hell in another way.

You come home and your wife or girlfriend has that mad look on her face.

You know that you have done something wrong but you don’t know what.

So, you go through your memory banks. Is today her birthday or an anniversary and you have forgotten?

Did she find out you used her toothbrush or did she find out you slept with her best friend?

You don’t know what your sin is and you don’t want to give any unwarranted information.

Now just replace spouse or girlfriend with God.

God doesn’t want an admission of a specific sin. God wants atonement, your admission of being a sinner or in the spouse/girlfriend scenario the admission that you are a jerk.

That is the nature of Hell.

Retribution is not going to save you only atonement, total and absolute acceptance of your punishment will save you

In other words, you should accept your pain and suffering without any mental reservations.

You should accept that whatever it is, you deserve the punishment.

The vicious cycle of Life

Life is a learning experience.

Being aware of this fact will make your life much enjoyable and allow you to avoid a lot of unnecessary pain and suffering.

How does the learning occur in your life?

Very simple; you get a problem, you find the correct solution, you get rewarded with pleasure.

OR

You have a problem, you don’t find the right answer, you get rewarded with pain then you get the same problem again.

This process can turn into a vicious cycle of pain and suffering you are not aware of the learning meaning of life. 

If you believe that life is about making money or getting laid or becoming famous etc you are wrong.

All of those scenarios are just the background on which the learning experience occurs.

Which means it is nothing wrong in having a successful life IF your life is full of rewards BUT it is very wrong to pay for that success in neverending pain and suffering.

So, going back to the learning process.

If you get a problem and solve it correctly you get a reward but also you get a new problem different from the first one.

Thye problems given are increasing in complexity and difficulty and meant to elevate your consciousness one step furder.

Also, the problem given is always in your range of abilities. You will never be given a problem you cannot solve.

The biggest problem with most of us is that we are not aware of this process of learning and its natural progression.

Many of us get stuck in a vicious cycle of repeating the same mistake again and again without realizing what is going on

Usually, we blame that reoccurrence on bad luck.

If let’s say we have a string of bad relationships we do not think “I’m making the same mistake again and again and to get out of this cycle of learning I have to find the right solution”

Instead, we persist in making the same mistake. 

We, in this particular scenario, believe that by choosing more carefully will find the right person next relationship.

The problem with that logic is that the very process of choosing is the cause of our problem.

Your ideal partner is not based on certain criteria you read in a Cosmopolitan or GQ magazine.

Your ideal partner is like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle that when found it will fit and complete you perfectly. Your soulmate can't be chosen by a rational mental process. 

If you want to find that soulmate you have to stop searching stop fighting and go with the flow.

You will attract that one special person because that person is your soulmate and naturally will fit you.

The problem with having a preset idea of what you want your partner to be will stop this very natural process and make you fail.

The Same scenario applies for anything else in life. You may have a string of bad job experiences. That is because you don’t allow you to connect to the right job for you. You are forcing the outcome thinking that you know better than God what you need.

Well, if you know it better how come you have this string of bad luck with your career?

It is God’s fault by not doing what you want right?

So, to summarize this little talk about lyfe’s vicious cycles:

If a certain occurrence seems to appear in your life, again and again, you are facing an unsolved problem.

You have to stop and figure out what you have been doing each time and consider that your solution is actually the very thing making you fail.

Usually, the mistake we make is forcing things and trying to control the universe instead of learning how to flow with the universe. And by universe I mean the situation you are in whatever your scenario may be/