Posts Tagged Friends
Take Those Rocks Out of Your Head!
Posted by davev in Start Thinking on December 2, 2009
Your thoughts can no more tell you what is true about your possibilities
than can a set of stream-side boulders know the nature of the waters
that rush by them.
The Secret of Knowing Without Thinking
Imagine for a moment what your life might be like if you never again were to pick up a complaining thought or feeling. Think of how your days would flow without carrying the additional weight of those inner voices always telling you, “I’m too tired,” or “This is too much for me!” The weight of the world would be replaced by a new sense of freedom. Fresh, new energies would flow.
If this is the kind of inwardly carefree life you really want, then look closely into these next two ideas that together tell one story of freedom: leaving troubled thoughts right where you find them is the same as not picking up what troubles you. And if you can leave just one of these weary thoughts behind you, then you can leave two, and three, and four, and fifty!
Most people tend to worry that if they don’t worry, something bad will happen to them. But what they don’t see is that these worried thoughts they’ve picked up by mistake are the very storm they fear will come!
You may wonder, “But what happens if I make a mistake? How can you tell which thoughts and feelings are the right ones to leave where you find them, and which ones do you pick up? What if I choose wrong?” You needn’t worry about such questions. Here’s why.
There’s a way to know, without ever having to think about it, exactly which of your own thoughts and feelings are your friends, and which are foes — a totally thought-free way to understand which of your thoughts are practical and necessary for everyday life, and which are stealing your life with unsuspected self-compromise. It’s true. You possess unsuspected powers of perception just waiting to be awakened. The following technique will help you get started.
Stop reading this for a minute and allow your eyes to fall on something familiar in the space where you are. Notice how your mind immediately gives that object a name. Having done this part of the exercise, keep your attention on whatever you’ve selected, and then continue to watch how more thoughts come into your mind about what you’re seeing.
Now, while you’re witnessing both that object and your growing stream of associative thoughts and feelings about it, just drop these thoughts and feelings.
You can still see the object, and you still know what it is — but now you are knowing without thinking. This is your introduction to an unconditioned relationship with life.
In this form of higher attention, of knowing without thinking, you can see that the meaning of the object before you has not changed. The difference is that now its meaning speaks directly, silently to you — instead of you listening to your thoughts tell you about its meaning.
When it comes to seeing a chair or a pencil, this new kind of thought-free state may not seem too profound. But this practice can, and should, be enlarged to encompass your whole life.
The benefits behind the ability to understand something, or someone, without having to go into thought, cannot be over estimated. You may not be able to think your way out of a nagging problem, but you can see your way clear of it. This special kind of inner seeing is safety. Waking up to yourself is the same as letting go of all those self-defeating thoughts and feelings that have been telling you how to win.
Being Fearless, Fulfilled, and Free… Now!
Posted by davev in Start Thinking, Take Action on May 14, 2009
When we know — deeply realize — that what we’re really looking for in this life is what we already are — and not what we may become — we stand on the threshold of a new order of being that is effortlessly fearless, fulfilled, and free.
Bright New Actions that Lead to the Fearless Life
Fear’s power over us is nothing more than the way it causes us to forget the truth of ourselves, which is this: we are created to eternally transcend the limits of our present nature, to transform who and what we have been in the very moment it ceases to serve the good of us. But, because we have forgotten this or — more accurately speaking — because we are asleep to its power in us, we are compelled to search for, find, and then believe in “powers” outside of ourselves that always betray us in our hour of need.
Actualizing our spiritual right to live without the frustration of fearful limitations is not a question of achieving something new; it begins with choosing to end a relationship with that which has never been true. So, it isn’t a question of “What do I do?” but “What must I bring an end to?” Hence, the Christ’s saying:
“Whoever shall lose his life shall gain it.”
Here for your study and consideration are two very common, but false beliefs about what one must do or be in order to transcend the limitations in his or her life. Study them closely. See how their unquestioned socially accepted convention serves to both frustrate and limit our natural right to be fearless. Also included with each example is a suggested new action whose purpose it is to help realize the limitless life of your True Self.
First of the fear-producing false beliefs: We must prepare — in advance — for everything that might happen to us.
The world we live in “tells” us it is wise to worry, to stress ourselves over every eventuality, regardless of personal cost to our health, family, or friends. But recall here Christ’s admonition: “Take no thought for the morrow.” The truth is, the more we prepare to be fearless, the more afraid we become! Here’s the new action to find the fearless life: Meet every moment awake to what it wants to give to us: a life essentially limitless in its newness. At the same time, detect and reject any fearful imagining about what might be lost should we step into the unknown moment before us.
Second of the fear-producing false beliefs: Before we can make those real changes in our lives, the ones that will bring us the freedom we seek, we must first secure the approval of others for our actions.
Most of us don’t realize how dependent we are on the approval of others, and how we weigh our life choices on scales that not only belong to others, but that are broken as well. Here’s the new liberating action: Deliberately release any thought or feeling that would have us believe the freedom that we long for can be found by wearing the yoke of popular opinion.
Here is one last encouraging, fear-busting fact and the bright action it helps to inspire. The source of our True Self is love-in-action. And since love transforms whatever it touches, any limitation can be transcended given our willingness to test this last truth: our True Self is created to neither serve, nor believe in anything other than the living Light that is fearlessness itself. Prove this truth to yourself, and you will know its powers.
