Why are we here?

Inspirational Quotes...

2009-05-04T10:24:00.002-04:00

"Try not to become a man of success but a man of value."
- Albert Einstein

"If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it."
- William Arthur Ward

"If you would create something, you must be something."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"The power of imagination makes us infinite."
- John Muir

"First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do."
- Epictetus

Our beliefs are our reality

2008-03-31T22:52:00.003-04:00

"Your thoughts drive your beliefs, so guard them with your life"

You were created in the likeness of the Creator. Being the son or daughter of the Creator means you're free to create the world around you. The world around you is created based on your belief of who you are and who you choose to be.

You're constantly creating the world around you based on your beliefs. And it happens whether you're concious of it or not. God loves you unconditionally. Which means there's nothing you can do to fall out of favour with God. You're free to experience life and make it what you will based on your beliefs.

The question is who do you believe you are? Are you unsatisfied with your life or a certain aspect of it? If so, then make a concious effort to review who you believe you are in that area of your life. You'll find that your reality matches your belief.

For example, are you up to your eye-balls in debt and can't ever seem to get out of it? Then look at your belief in that area. Chances are your thoughts are filled with obsession and fear of being in debt and when the next bill will arrive. You're in debt because all your thoughts and therefore your beliefs are focused on being in debt. Your belief is that your in debt. So, your reality simply follows your belief.

You are a creator. You have more power than you can imagine. Focus your thoughts and beliefs on what you ARE, instead of what you're AFRAID of. Focusing your thoughts on what you're afraid of simply strengthens your belief of that fear and brings more of the same.

Believe your debt-free. Better yet, believe your a millionaire. Focus your mind on thoughts of BEING a millionaire. That will feed your belief that you ARE a millionaire. And your reality will catch up to your belief. That's a simple law of the universe. It's been covered in a lot of self-help literature over the ages. Including techniques like "Visualization". And most recently sited as the Law of Attraction in the book, "The Secret" (great book and DVD by the way).

A belief isn't a want, or a wish, its a deep seeded knowing that you already are the thing you choose. In fact a want and wish works against your belief. Because if you want or wish for something, you believe you don't have it.

And all beliefs start with your thoughts. Guard your thoughts with your life. Because your thoughts are the building blocks of your life. Your mind can be your greatest enemy, or your greatest allie. If left unchecked, your mind will focus on its instinct for survival. It will do everything in its power to keep you safe. And how much safer can you be when your alone in your room? Everything and everyone is seen as a threat to your survival in its primitive scope. That old adage, "An idile mind is the playground of the devil" holds true in that if left unchecked, your mind will leave you eventually alone and in your own lonely hell on earth.

However, when you enact your free will and guide your mind, and constantly focus your thoughts on your belief in who you are and who you choose to be, the world is your oyster.

Angel Board

2007-02-26T21:50:00.000-05:00

"If you seek an angel with an open heart, you shall always find one"

In an earlier post (please see "Happiness is...", March 18, 2005) I mentioned that my first true spiritual epiphany came when my cousin introduced me to something she called the "Angel Board".

As far as I could tell at the time, it essentially looked like a home made Ouija board which to me was not a good thing. Years earlier my friend had me try the Ouija board "game" and with both of us scared out of our wits had some seemingly bad ghost entities come through spelling some pretty fowl language.

Needless to say I wasn't exactly thrilled to go through a similar experience again. But, my cousin reassured me that while both do allow spirit energy to communicate with us (angels, ghosts, etc. are spirit energies that are around us all the time), the major difference is that your specifically asking for your guardian angels to communicate through the Angel Board in a state of peice and love. As opposed to the majority of people that use the Ouija that are in a state of fear (mostly of the unknown) asking and believing they are communicating with ghosts through the Ouija.

That explaination made some sense to me, so I meditated a bit getting myself in a state of peice and we both laid our fingers on the base of a small cup turned upside down on the table and asked to speak to our guardian angels. Nothing happened for a few minutes. But slowly and steadily I started to feel this amazing sensation. I can only describe it as controlled "shivers".

Like the ones you get when telling ghost stories when your young, only not just on the back of your neck. These felt like a wave of shivers that "flowed" like a wave up and down my back, shoulders, arms, and head. It was the most amazing sensation. I never felt so at peice, calm, and content. It was so overwhelming that tears started to well up in my eyes. They were tears of joy and I'd never had that experience before.

At that point the cup started to move. Both my cousin and I laid our fingertips very lightly on the cup and it moved with what seemed like a momentum of its own. If one of us lifted our fingers off the cup even slightly the movement stops like a curcuit was broken. I do know that you need two or more people to get the cup to move. And the more people, the stronger the energy and movements you feel. The cup moved to the letters of the alphabet and numbers hand printed by my cousin around the inside edge of the paper.

The cup was moving at a pretty good pace smoothly spelling out words. I found out my guardian angels name was "Hata". And while angels don't really have a gender, they tend to identify themselves as male or female. Mine prefers to be known as male. And the messages he gave were one's of hope, peice, and that God loves us unconditionally.

Please read the previously mentioned blog post for a summary of many sessions. I've since learned that its much more efficient to simply meditate and speak to any angel or spirit or God for that matter. The reason we haven't or couldn't speak to any of the mentioned spirit entities is because we've been conditioned to believe we couldn't.

Our free will is the number one driving force in our life. Along with our belief. As I've mentioned many times in past posts, your belief drives your reality. Simply believing you can communicate to these entities opens the door for that communication.

Some things I've learned about guardian angels along the way. They have a child like innocence to them. They are always loving. They are always positive. They like to clown around and make us laugh. They are always with us but only make their presence known to us when we ask or when we desperately need their help. They are here to assist us spiritually and their actions are driven by our decisions when we choose enlightening paths. They always respect our freedom of choice and will not choose for us and will never answer questions that they feel will influence our path. They are with us to assist and nurture, but not to lead the way. They're along for the ride assisting us and enabling our spiritual path when we make enlightened decisions. They never judge and never scold us when we take "un-enlightened" actions. All actions are learning experiences and all our choices and actions are perfect in their mind. They work together to mold the reality around you based on your beliefs.

And coincidence is the angels playground and calling card. If you seem to have things fall in your lap in a way that a) was totally unexpected, and b) happened after some seemingly weird co-incidence then its pretty much guarranteed it was your angels doing.

If anyone is interested in trying it out, I've created an Angel Board below that's a slight variance to the typical letters and numbers one. It just adds common words along the top to allow quicker communication.

You can see the layout below. You can also download and print the full size version by clicking on the link below the graphic. Simply print and cut along the black square line along the outside of the page.

Click here for the full-size printable version

Also, there's no need to be afraid. Remember, your free will and belief are the driving factors to this and all experiences in your life. Simply meditate and/or pray before the session. Place the paper in the middle of a smooth table. Put a small cup face down on the table so it can move along the outside of the paper. You and one or more partners place one or two fingers of one hand lightly on the base of the cup. And believe and ask to speak to your guardian angel.

Be looking for how you feel the spirit energy. For many it's the shiver sensation I mentioned earlier. For others its a change in temperature to different parts of the body. And still others its a light ringing in the ears. In all cases the sensations come in what feel like waves. Its a really amazing feeling. You feel what I can only describe as incredibly content. Also, you loose all track of time, so be careful if you start the session later in the evening or at night. Before you know it, it's the middle of the night and it only feels like you've been at it for an hour.

Happy angel boarding :)

Now

2007-02-25T09:58:00.000-05:00

"Time is Now"
Funny how many of us get lost by focusing on our past or on our future. Many believe we are defined by our past or alternately the super-achievers believe we are defined by our future goals.

The reality is that the only time that exists is now. Time as we conceive it as "past" or "future" only exists as a figment of our imagination.

Past memories is a tool our mind uses to store our experiences of now in the memory banks of our mind. Without it we couldn't analyze and learn from our past experiences. But the intention is just that -- to learn from our past experiences so we can choose to be the best person we can be here and now in the present.

Unfortunately, our mind can (if left unchecked) obsess on those past stored experiences and have the exact opposite affect on our lives. The mind can repeatedly focus on our past experiences allowing us to relive those previous moments in time again and again in our mind leading us to believe we are our past. Our belief drives our current reality. Because we focus and experience that past in our mind repeatedly, we believe we are that past -- and our belief becomes our reality. And we stay in that vicious merry-go-round acting the same way we did in the past when put in similar situations.

This leads to those classic sayings like, "a leopard nevers loses its spots", and "you can take the boy out of the getto, but you can never take the getto out of the boy". Which are of course a load of crap.

Get off the crazy mind merry-go-round. There is only one moment in time -- hear and now. The present.

Future is a similar imaginary concept that exists exclusively in our mind. Type-A driven personalities like to use it to focus the mind on future goals. But it too only exists in our imagination. Please don't get me wrong -- goal setting is a valuable tool in cementing our belief of who we are and who we choose to be. Strictly focusing on our future specific goals can get us obsessed and loose track of the hear and now.

Also, believing that the goal is a future event means we believe we don't have it yet. And our belief is our reality. So, it can in fact have an opposite affect if we aren't careful. The strength in future goal setting is to see the goal clearly in our mind to strengthen our belief that the goal is part of us now. The goal already exists. With that belief, your reality will catch up to your belief.

You were created in the image of God (please replace with Allah, One Mind, the Father, great univeral enrergy, or the term that best represents our creator to you). God is the creator, and you are also a creator. You create your reality here on earth based on your belief. Your belief is your reality.

Believe you're weak, poor, dumb, dull, a bad parent, or a terrible spouse. Or believe you're strong, rich, smart, a loving parent, and an incredible spouse. Either way your right. Your belief is your reality.

See past and future for what they are; tools in your mind to build your belief of who you are and who you choose to be in the only real moment in time -- NOW.

Giving

2007-02-25T09:09:00.000-05:00

"Giving transforms Having into Being"
Ultimately who you are isn't measured on your potential, but on your deeds. You can have great artisitic talent, but you'll only be an artist when you give your artwork to the world. You can have great love for your kids as a parent, but you'll only be a loving parent when you give and show that love to your kids.

Its the difference between knowledge and experience. The first step to being is knowledge. Knowledge is having. The second crutial and much more challenging step is to transform that knowledge into experience. Experience is what you become after giving your knowledge.

So blatently taking from a couple of famous advertizing slogans, "Be all that you can be" and "Just do it."

Quotes...

2005-04-26T00:03:00.000-04:00

"Love not what you are but what you may become."
--Miguel de Cervantes, 1547-1616, Spanish Writer

"If we did all the things we are cabable of doing we would truly astound ourselves."
--Thomas Edison, 1847-1931, American Inventor

"We should say to each child: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique...You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything."
--Pablo Casals, 1876-1973, Spanish Cellist, Conductor, and Composer

"No matter what your level of ability, you have more potential than you can ever develop in a lifetime."
--Anonymous

Sprituality versus Religion

2005-04-22T15:22:00.000-04:00

"Spirtuality is a personal journey"
Some would argue spiruality and religion are different ways to say the same thing. But, once you make a concious effort to focus on your spirtuality you find that they don't have to be linked. In fact I've seen in some cases where spirtuality and religion are mutually exclusive.

Spirituality is your personal journey in experiencing your inner self and gaining a greater wisdom in regards to God and your relationship and understanding of the higher power. It's an important aspect of ourself that we need to focus on in order to feel balanced and complete (see blog "Happiness is..."). For many (most?) of us, that aspect of ourselves is ignored for a good part of our life. And it's true that for many the first introduction to spirituality is through religion.

I've seen more than a few people become ecstatic when they initially join a particular religion. It's the first time in their lives that they feel that loving connection to their inner spirit and God and they feel that unexplainable excitment. They were so starving for that spiritual connection for so long that when they find it, they take it in like a starving person takes a loaf of bread.

Then because they finally feel happiness and the balance that was missing for so long, they feel that this religion must be the answer to their happiness. And they focus a large part of their lives in the short term into this new found religion in order to keep that happiness going. And they try and convert as many friends and family to this new found found religion so they can also feel the same ecstacy that they fealt.

In many cases, they unfortunately focus too much time on their new found spirituality, at the expense of one or more of their equally important emotional, social, physical, or mental aspects of their lives. Which makes them feel like something is missing from their lives again and they feel unhappy once again.

Spirituality is our personal journey to God. Our personal experience is the great teacher. When the wisdom of our personal experience conflicts with the knowledge given to us by some one or some group, our personal experience takes precidence. Your experience of God is the truth.

Religion is a particular groups interpretation and belief of God. Your spirtual growth is limited to the particular groups interpretation of God. When your personal experience of something conflicts with the groups interpretation of that event, its the religions interpretation of the truth that always takse precidence.

For example, a particular religion believes that dancing is blasphemous. It is evil. You've belonged to this religion your entire life, but see your friends having a great time dancing. They go out as a group and have a fun time socializing and dancing together. You go against your guilt and try dancing for yourself with your friends. And you find you love it. It doesn't feel evil. In fact you experience that you have great rythym. There are even certain songs that touch your spirit when you danced to them. You approach your religious elders with the fact that you went dancing and loved it. You tell them that far from feeling evil, it fealt fun and there were even some songs that touched your spirit while you danced. They inform you that you committed a great sin and must not dance again. The groups interpretation of the truth takes precidence over personal experience.

Be spiritual and use your personal experience of God and your inner spirit to guide your journey. If you find a particular religion that touches your heart and speaks to your beliefs, then feel free to follow your heart. But never underestimate or undermine the wisdom of your personal experiences.

Relationships

2005-03-20T20:26:00.000-05:00

"Our personal relationships are most important."

I believe we are on this earth to gain wisdom through experience. And the most valuable experience is gained through our personal relationships. When we're confronted with our own humanity, like having a serious illness, we never focus on material or financial aspects of our life, we focus on our relationships. We never say, "Damn, I wish I had bought a bigger house" or "Jeez, I never got that promotion". We say things like, "I wish I could have gotten closer to my dad." or "I wish I could have spent more time with my kids."

And yet, when going after our goals, we tend to focus on material and personal development. When there is a conflict between spending time with family and friends, and our career for example, all too often family and friends take a back seat.

Our time is finite in this life. If we aren't careful and keep putting our relationships on the back burner, there may come a time when we don't have enough time left to build those relationships to where we would like them to be. Which can equate to a life of regrets.

Happiness is...

2005-03-18T14:38:00.000-05:00

"Happiness is…balance"

Back in the early nineties, I was at a point in my life where I should have been happy. I had a great job as an IT Manager with great pay. I owned a nice car. I was in great shape taking martial arts. I was single and doing the bar scene regularly. And on the outside, I had the perfect bachelor life.

Then why was I so miserable on the inside? I felt like something was missing, but I couldn’t peg it.

Shortly after my cousin introduced me to the angel board (thats another blog). It was short of like the Ouija board, but the purpose was to specifically contact your guardian angel. I had a bad experience with the Ouija previously (again, another blog), and was extremely wary. But, I tried it anyway.

It turned out to be one of the most enlightening events of my life. Really inspiring. One of the questions I asked, amoung other things, was why I wasn't happy. The reponse I received was that happiness wasn't a destination, it was a state of being. It was a choice. And once you choose to be happy, it becomes a belief. And that belief powers the events around you.

The problem is I thought it was a destination. Once I have this, this, and that, then I'll be happy. The problem is that we can't always control what happens in our life and if one of those items aren't acheived we feel like we've somehow failed and fallen farther from happiness. Even if we acheive all the things on the imaginary slate in our head, it's human nature to always want more. So a new list is created. And the reality is we could never complete the list.

It sounded a bit too simple to me. So, then I asked once the choice to be happy is made, how do we know we're happy? The response was that once the decision was made, we need to focus on the five areas in our life that create balance. We feel happy when we feel equally content with ourselves in each of the five areas:

Physical: How we feel about our physic being in relation to our diet, weight, cardio, etc.
Mental: How we feel in relation to our mental state. Do we feel challenged mentally in relation to our work, education, finance, etc.
Emotional: How we feel about our personal one on one loving relationships. Those relationships could be our mate, parent, child, close friend, family, etc. The key is do we feel content that those loving one on one relationships with the key people in our lives is healthy. That list of people to focus on will be different for each of us.
Social: We are social animals by nature and we need to make sure we don't ignore the social aspect of ourselves. Do we feel content that we're seeing enough of our friends and family from a social aspect. Simply to let loose and have fun with our family and friends.
Spiritual: Do we feel content about ourselves spiritually. And that means something different for each of us. Whatever you label and envision God as, the Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Allah, Buddha, Krishna, Mother Earth, the Higher Spirit, the great universal energy that binds the universe, the One, or the infinite other aliases. Do you feel content that you are in touch with your inner spirit self that binds you to the higher spirit.

The five areas can be thought of as five equally spaced spokes of a wheel balanced in the center by a pole. Focusing too much or too little on one area throws the wheel of happiness out of balance and we start to feel something is off or even missing in our life.
This analogy made perfect sense to me. How many people did I know in school that focused almost exclusively on one or two areas at the expense of the others. My computer hacker friends that focused heavily on the mental and social aspects of their tight inner circle of friends at the expense of their physical, emotional, and spitual states. Or my high school jock friend that focused heavily on his physical, social, and emotional states (at least he seemed like they always had a cheerleader girlfriend) at the expense of his mental and spiritual states.

The test is to say to yourself, "I am happy physically" (or mentally, emotionally, etc). You will immediately feel good about that statement, or feel like somethings off. If it doesn't feel right, it means you need to focus on that area of your life.

Science & Religion

2005-03-17T22:54:00.000-05:00

"Two approaches to the same thing"

In general it seems like followers of science and followers of religion are on the opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to God. Scientists are aethiests that will only believe what is proven and ignore anything related to faith and the spirit. And the religious follow in blind faith their interpretation of God to the exclusion of scientific proof.
It seems silly to me that they butt heads over two aspects of the same thing. Like the old Light Beer commercial where the two beer drinkers are arguing. One says, "It tastes great", the other says, "It's less filling".
Religion studies God from a spiritual and philisophical approach. While science studies the laws of the physical universe created by God.

The Jeet Kune Do Approach to Spirtuality

2005-03-16T16:46:00.000-05:00

"Take what works for you, leave the rest. "

Yes, not just satisfied being a techno-geek, I'm a Bruce Lee geek as well. After reading "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do", I was floored by what a deep thinker he was.
He founded the martial art after he found that the kung fu he learned was limiting to him when used in practice. So, he decided to study many martial arts and incorporate the techniques that fit his strengths, body type, and philosophy -- and leave the techniques that didn't.
It turns out that Jeet Kune Do is more a philosophy than a strict martial art that teaches you to try as many different martial arts as possible and use the techniques that work for you. So that each person ends up developing their own version of the martial art that completely fits their strengths, beliefs, and approach.
I believe our spirtual journey is a deeply personal one. An infinite God can never be described by a single finite book or theology. So, using the Jeet Kune Do philosophy, study as many religions and beliefs as possible. You'll find most have the same basic beliefs of God, but each one approaches God from a different perspective.
Incorporate what rings true to your heart, and leave the rest.