When we lived at the beach a few years ago it started.  The impulse to stop and listen, to listen while i work, to listen…  at that point it was more of a turning off of the mind for a few moments or minutes…

And more recently i have had more awareness around this.  Listening is about opening, i imagine my chest open and i feel whatever feeling accompanies that opening.

And just in the past few days i am realizing that listening comes from my whole being, it again is about being open and allowing.  I listen to the day, i listen to those i am around, i listen to my furry friends, i listen to my own voice, and it tells me i am loved and accepted and ok, just as i am.  and it tells me that everyone is ok just the way they are.  And when thoughts come that accuse me or someone else, there is always another thought to hear, one of understanding and accepting and trusting.

Listening requires faith, because we must give up the mind for the time we are listening.  Listening to the unknown, that inner you.  And listening to the outer you, the life we live here now, other people, animals, plants, trees, what is seen.

By listening we get to know Life better, and we become at rest with all that is.  I started out following the impulses and now Life is listening through me…

The above was a something i posted to facebook….a dear friend asked me to define ‘save myself’ and brought up some other ideas, below is the response that came….

…when i follow the promptings without running things through my justifier, qualifier, counter or analyzer…my mind…but just allow what comes to flow…then i am not attempting to save myself. I don’t know who is out there listening to me, i do know that one sentence from someone like Mooji or Adyashanti in passing has given me exactly what i needed to take the next step, or several steps.

And i know that i risk many people not understanding what i am saying, i could attempt to save myself from being misunderstood…but i choose now to follow the promptings, and the prompting was ‘the words above typed on facebook, now’….so i followed….which is what i want to do more than anything.

About fear, of course i still feel fear and anger and sadness, i just feel them and trust them and they always lead me to new (previously unallowed and untrusted) parts of myself…………………………..i don’t read the words of others, except and unless i happen to be on the page of a friend, following a prompting and some sentence catches my eye…there is plenty of life coming directly to me from the inside.

I, like you say…have thought i knew everything…it’s a lot to give up, and trusting the greater me for help is the only way to let go of knowing…..there is a place for my unattached mind….and that is to understand ways to allow and enjoy and trust and even treasure ‘following my heart’, ‘the promptings’…..

I am doing this or that..
I did this or that…
I will do this or that…
I own this or that…
I created this or that…
How will I ever be able to do this or that…

Now, there is coming an understanding…there is no I to do anything, not a separate I anyway. Nobody ever does anything on their own, never, it is all of us doing everything. Life seems like a good word that includes all of us…Life is doing everything…

The cool thing about this clarity is that anne is no longer guilty, no longer takes credit, no longer exists to judge. So there is no need for the huge mind job of calculating, judging, weighing, figuring or worrying. The mind can rest now. Anne was just a figment, a concept…a product of the mind…

Still in a body, still enjoying the full experience of being here…
Without anne, there is just allowing what is…to be…

The way to this awareness for me has been to allow Anne to be, whatever that means, and love her…

We are human beings and that means creatures of habit. It is your concern over your habits that creates the bind. It isn’t ever what we do it is our thoughts about what we do that causes our issues. Everything in life flows freely like a beautiful un-interrupted river and it flows according to our desires. But when we get our mind in the way and judge what we see and do, we alter the course of the river.

In order to let go of something we have to embrace it and let it be as it is…this includes our behavior. We have to let it be and stop the judgment, stop calling it self defeating and not life nourishing. You could look away from these kinds of ideas and just call your actions part of life…and say that you are trusting life to bring all that you want including and especially, a change in your actions around what ever the issues are.

When we allow, that means we allow ourselves to have the food, drugs, alcohol, whatever it is. It is the same answer, don’t fight and let go of judgment and allow, that is our work.

Trusting right where you are that Life, Source, God can take care of this and anytime your mind starts down the same rut of judging yourself stop it and remember that you are not struggling with this any more and that you are trusting life to bring the answers and the new action.

When we line up the energy first (by trusting for change and giving up the judgment) it will be easy to let go of the behavior and you will know how you did it and you will say…What is next?

Addictions get way too much attention, they are just a part of our program that goes away easily when we are not a match to it anymore…..when we stop making it bad or harmful in our minds.

-lao tzu says it like this…do you have the patience to wait until your mind settles and the water is clear? can you remain unmoving until the right action arises by itself?

-the Beatles say it like this…Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be, there will come an answer, let it be…..

Who ever told us we needed to know and understand everything?
Just notice how many things we really don’t know.

How many things are on automatic?
like the sun, air, earth, our bodies, why, when, who…
This is a long list.

Sure we can effect but we can’t really change Life.

We may get rid of life as we know it now, but
soon enough it will bounce back, when we are gone.
Maybe…

All I really know is here, now.
Anything else is conjecture, best guess.

We are inaccurate so much,
How do we know?

Really?

The only thing to do is trust what is here
to be the best. And stop fighting with life.
Life has an agenda, or maybe it doesn’t.
I don’t know, not Anne.

And that is that.
2/2/2012

One of my very first quesitons to “God” way back then, in my early 20′s was “What is Going On Here?, I want to know?”

To be here without a map is a scary thing.  And the sketchy mismatch of a map I had wasn’t getting me to the happiness I desired.  It has been over 3 decades now since I first asked that question.  And I am very happy to report that now I have a map that is working.

So what have I found?
Who I am
Why I’m here
Who all the other people are
Why they are in my life

And what has this brought?
More and more trust, peace, rest, honesty, enjoyment, love and freedom.

What did I use to create my map? or better, What did Life use to create a map for me? as It answered the call It heard in my question, “What is going on here?”
Life used, every day, every person, every thought, every emotion, every teacher…all of it. Life used Life.

And also Life used more and more the voice as I became more able to hear it. Yes, I hear a voice and sometimes it is loud, but mostly it is the voice of my soul…answering the questions, what do I desire?, what do I love?, what do I feel? And after those are answered, then Life shows me the way to experience, what I want, what I love and what feels the best to me.

So, back to the map and the question…what is going on here?

My map is a composite of all the life I have lead, and there is no possible way it will be the same as anybody else’s map. This is where many get stuck, and have wars, we think our way or our map is best. But as you can see from my experience, my map is best for me and your map is best for you.

So here’s the thing, if your map/way isn’t working it’s time to re evaluate and re decide, and mostly it is time to start asking for and trusting the One Voice for help to have the courage to trust Life to bring your answers.

When we work our way into a place of trust…the mountains move, the doors open and Life flows. And it is the best feeling, ever…

With maturity One realizes that relating around our maps/ways is a less effective form of love. And when we arrive at our destination, whatever that is for each of us, then the map becomes a way of life and not something we need to talk about.

When we can step back and observe we find that the life we know is the product of the individual vibrations and desires of all of us…  One calls for something desired (vibrationally) and another answers the call also vibrationally.  And this dance is what creates the life we know here now.

The signifigance of this is that nobody is really doing anything on their own.  Each one is receiving and giving at all times.  It is like a dance that we are all involved in.  There is no good or bad or right or wrong.  And many times the perceived receiver is actually the giver.  There is no way to wrap our minds around Life…it must be accepted as is.

By just allowing what Life is bringing forth and giving up our judgment of it…we can also let go of the view that we are valuable because of something we do or know.  And any success any individual achieves is achieved by all of us.  And no matter what it looks like…each one of us has the same significance and value.

This understanding erodes the belief in the individual self and promotes a broader understanding of our Oneness.

Personally I like the word un-attached because it still means part of ….and yet…free from attachment to.

Detached, to me, seems more like separated from, and I cannot separate, we are all One.

Un-attachment comes for me one thing at a time… every time I follow the entire voice that comes from within me, I let go or un-attach from what any other outer voice has to say on the matter.

We can only un-attach from the outer voices (perspectives), we each have our own perspective but it is the inner voice that we share.

So the answer is yes, I do enjoy un-attachment in many areas, and am listening to the voice from within more and more…. thereby finding more un-attachment.

Thank you friend…for the question…

I have thought for as long as I can remember that when something went wrong…..someone did something wrong.  And as I look around, I can see that others feel the same way, there just must be someone to blame.

This idea is taught, it isn’t something we came with.  Watch small children, they are completely free from guilt.  They enjoy their day with no remorse, when something doesn’t work out they move away and then come back.  Until they are programmed with the insidious idea that someone did something wrong.

Wrong is a judgement, and so is right.  As we grow-up and understand that Life just is, in all it’s beauty and pain and sorrow, it just is.  Nobody did anything wrong.

When we observe someone doing something wrong, and we step back and observe the judgment, we can be sure that we are judging ourself  the same way.

Most of the people I am around will “say” that we are all one, and that all is well, and that judgment is to be given up.  Well then, at some point we must wake up from the dream of doing, and that includes doing it right and doing it wrong.

I always come back to the part of Genesis that says we have a choice to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…or we can eat of the fruit of the tree of Life.  It is all just life, working itself out.  All of it, just the way it is here.  Letting go of the mind means letting go of accusing anyone of doing it wrong.  Because that is an impossibility and a figment of our imaginations.

Does the tree do it wrong, or the squirrel or the baby or the weather….maybe we don’t like it, and we don’t choose it, but that does not make it wrong,  And as we grow up and understand the vastness and the depth of Love that Life has for us….we will be thankful for all that comes to us, because it is all a loving gift and an opportunity to advance toward what we do want.  There is no substitute for trust.

I love you all, and I am learning that we can’t do it wrong.  What a relief…..

There is a place we can come to,

Call it home if you like,

Call it joy or love or peace.

A place that needs no trying because

It envelops and disolves and penetrates and perpetuates itself effortlessly.

It calls to us while we sleep in our frenzied lives of concern and worry.

It calls to us to stop and listen and feel,

To stop and rejoice in what is, no matter what that is,

To return to the simple and fresh and free.

It promises hope and presence and love for all.

Some will answer the call of this place,

Will you?

If you do, then you will be part of the place and it’s continuous calling.

Come away with me, come away with me my love…….