This is still very much unfinished. Parts are cut and pasted from other places. please forgive mistakes and duplications.
Wealth and poverty
wealth of time
wealth of love
wealth of peace and joy
sensual wealth of being in your body
wealth of family, friends, community
wealth of meaning and purpose
wealth of experience
Healthy values and intentions lead to
Healthy thoughts which lead to
Healthy emotions which lead to
Healthy Body, Relationships and life
underlying all those is connecting deeply with Spiri
Peace, happiness, prosperity, ultimately everything is a state of consciousness. Everything you think you want is just a way to get that feeling.
True health and happiness=clear mind, open heart.All else follows. We all want to be happy and healthy. The question is, what is the best way to do this. The single greatest key is what we choose to think about.
Loving, wise intentions, thoughts and emotions, words and deeds create health, are health,
unloving, unwise intentions, thoughts, emotions, words and deeds create dis-ease, are dis-ease.
I am a person who started out life with a lot of problems, and through honest self examination and diligence has experienced much improvement, and still has more to come. This is not meant to be an exhaustive manual, but rather a guide to those teachers and teachings which have served me. With a few exceptions, i am not giving details of practices, and i am making many statements which i am not giving the proof for in this little work. Think of this as a roadmap, or perhaps a guidebook with suggestions on where to go.This represents the best i know now, and, as the title says, will probably change as i learn and grow.
Try these ideas, see if they work for you.
Namaste,
jay dancing bear
___________________________________________________
4/23/14
The basics
1) HONESTY WITH YOURSELF
the more you can admit to yourself and get clear how your life really is, your strengths and weaknesses, your issues, the more that you can begin to do something about it.
This DOES NOT MEAN beating yourself up, telling yourself how you suck or fucked, or how great you are. It just means describing to yourself, as accurately as possible, your current situation, especially your attitudes, beliefs and subconscious programming.
2) TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOURSELF
No matter how shitty the hand life has dealt you, no matter what has happened, no matter what anybody did, the most important power you have is how you react to it. You can make lemonade, or get sour. I write as someone who has been sour a lot. Take it from me, it doesn’t make things better, it makes them worse, but you already know that
The most important factor in your life is you, especially your attitudes, beliefs and subconscious programming.
3) SUBCONSCIOUS-UNCONSCIOUS
Do you really think that your conscious mind is running your life? Maybe you’re the one in a million, but most people got programmed in childhood with all kinds of messages. Your job as an adult is to get rid of what you don’t want and choose what you do want in your subconscious, but first you have to just become aware that that’s who’s running the show.
Most people come out of their childhoods with deep wounds, which is not surprising because most parents are learning on the job, and if you were interviewing for the job of parent most of them would fail the interview. But they followed their programming of get married and have kids, and anyway nature has provided horniness as an indiscriminate way of continuing the species, and maybe you were lucky.
for most people that means,
TAKING OUT THE GARBAGE that is in your psyche.
You know what happens to garbage if you don’t take it out; it starts to stink, and stink more and more. Denial works in your 20s, but when you start hitting your 30s and 40s, problems are really starting to become evident
4) SKILLS-PRACTICES
Do the work-get the paycheck. You have to learn practices, get a sense of which ones work best for you, which can and probably does change, and most importantly, put in the time.
___________________________-
Personal Growth-A Work in Progress
A few years ago i started writing a personal growth manual, which is still very much unfinished. Here are my latest additions, which at some point i will integrate into the main file.
————————-
BECOMING MORE CONSCIOUS
The path of personal growth eventually becomes the path of spiritual growth. We start by working on healing our healing our wounded human selves, which starts by simply becoming conscious of the wounded parts of ourselves, and sooner or later, this lifetime or another, we journey on to becoming aware of our higher selves, the Self, as it is called in the East. Joel Goldsmith (1892-1964), a great modern American mystic, speaks of this in all his books.
Plan of Action
We become aware of, through paying conscious attention to:
1) Our bodies, our somatic selves. Awareness of sensations in all the different parts of our body. Our left big toe, right ankle, skin of the upper back, etc. This is not just awareness of the body; it is said that our consciousness is not just in our brains, but in fact is spread all through our bodies. It is also said that we have memories, emotions, traumas locked into different parts of the body. This is one of the reasons why, when getting a massage, people often go through emotions or have memories come up.
2) Our thought-awareness of thoughts, control of thoughts is one of the key practices of the East, and also of much of what is called the new age.
3) Awareness of our emotions. At every moment, we are experiencing some e-motion, yet how many people are aware of what their emotion is at the moment.
How many people are fully aware of all this? I’m certainly not, though this has become my life’s work, to be as fully conscious at all times as i can.
My belief, based on some minor experience, is that as we become more conscious we begin to experience ourselves as part of a greater whole, as a kidney cell might, at some point, become conscious of itself as a part of Dick or Jane.
The journey is from the small self, the selfish me i got mine who cares about you self, to the Self, which ultimately knows in the deepest sense that we are all One, and acts accordingly.
—————-
SOLVING OUR PROBLEMS
Are our problems just problems, or lessons and opportunities to learn and grow from? The answer we give to that question makes a huge difference in our experience of our lives.
Everybody wants the same things.
A short, general list
Love and good relationships of all sorts; connection with others
Health
Prosperity
Pleasure
Success in one’s chosen profession
A sense of meaning and purpose
Self Expression
Home
Who doesn’t want those things?
So we all do what we can to get them: work, exercise, go out on dates, etc.
We believe that
happiness=getting what we want,from external stimuli
but does it?
Some people get what they want and still aren’t happy. Some don’t get, and are happy. Getting what you want does not guarantee happiness.
Distinguish between pleasure, ego gratification, happiness and joy.
How much of our unhappiness is based on the belief we have that “I can’t be happy without ____”, rather than the actual experience of our lives (not speaking of survival needs).
What if happiness is a state of consciousness, perhaps a state resulting from clear energy flows in the body, that has nothing necessarily to do with external stimuli, even though it seems it does.
What if
our levels of happiness and our sets of problems are the results of our level of consciousness,
including the openness and condition of our chakras and our meridians, the level of our intentions and aspirations, and the degree to which we have cleansed ourselves of psychic poisons such as fear and hatred and have healthy self images and beliefs, and at the highest level, the degree to which we have realized the Self?
Each level of consciousness has a different set of problems that go with it, just as children have different sets of developmental problems at each age. What if raising our consciousness would result in problems solving themselves, and of course the new level of consciousness would have a new set of issues to solve.
What if states of consciousness are like frequencies on a radio dial, and through practices and releasing internal static we develop the ability to tune in to higher frequencies, frequencies with progressively more happiness and less suffering?
A basic part of raising our consciousness is clearing the garbage and negative programming out of our psyches and replacing it with healthy material.
According to (in my understanding) NLP (neuro linguistic programming) and Louise Hay and other teachers, our unconscious self images and beliefs run our lives. If we have negative unconscious/subconscious self images and beliefs of ourselves such as- i am damaged, wounded, weak, bad, undeserving, etc., then as much as we may struggle and work on the conscious level, it’s going to be very, very hard to get results. Some people have unconscious fears of having what they want, for example women who are overweight very often have fears of the negative attention they would receive if they were more attractive, perhaps a fear of being attacked. Often the fears are much more complex.
So much of our lives are based on thoughts of the future, “when i get (this or that)”, but the only time we ever live is now. It’s always now, and if happiness is an experience, the only time we can have that experience is now.
I am not saying be a hedonist, not saying don’t make plans and work towards goals, not saying don’t live in the world and have sex and make money. I am very much saying that don’t just think achieving your goals will make you happy. You will almost certainly get a momentary rush, but real happiness is a state of consciousness, an energetic experience, not a winning scorecard.
You expect at work that if you work the hours you will get a paycheck of money. Well, if you work the hours of personal/spiritual growth you will get a paycheck of higher consciousness.
I would like to mention a point that Goldsmith stresses very much in his writings, a point made in the Eastern traditions: If you are seeking to realize the Self just for purposes of health, pleasure and prosperity, you will never realize the Self, never experience the real thing. Desiring/needing consciousness keeps you from the highest. It’s an apparent contradiction, because as human beings how could we not want health, relationship, pleasure and prosperity. My best understanding at this time is that we usually have mixed motives, and it is important that ones’ primary motive be to experience the Self, not the worldly goods, that it’s a long journey, and we start where we are.
Motive is something that can’t be faked. I think that probably, over time, ones’ motives get purified through doing the work. To me this is maybe the toughest question of all, that of motive. We can work, meditate, do yoga, and all the other practices, but how to purify motives and intentions is not so clear to me, yet in my own life it has just gradually happened, not that i’m so fucking pure, but a lot more than i used to be.
People put lots of hours into making money and working out, but how much time do most people put into working on themselves, the effort which would produce the greatest results?
some reading, a very short starter list
NLP-the new technology of achievement
Louise Hay-You Can Heal Your Life
Joel Goldsmith-Practicing the Presence (or any other title by him)
Marie Manuchehri-Intuitive Self Healing (about the Chakras)
Bhagavad Gita
Aldous Huxley-The Perennial Philosophy
______________________
here is the latest installment of my personal growth manual
———————————-
Certainly yoga, organic food, etc. are healthy practices, yet so many people seem to have unhealthy beliefs and attitudes underlying them. For example:
if you have the underlying belief that you are the victim of toxins in the environment, and that you must live really healthy just to counteract that, and perhaps the further belief that even then it may not be enough, and perhaps the belief that these poisons in the environment, which are affecting YOU!, were put there by other, unconscious people, often bad, selfish people motivated only by making money, who don’t care who they hurt
(notice all the judgments and assumptions)
well, although you may be minimizing the physical toxins you are directly taking in, you are certainly creating a lot of poisons in your mind, poisons which will impact your body as the result of stress, if nothing else.
Further, if you have an attitude such as “i’m better than other people because i do this stuff”, that attitude itself is also a poison, creating a sense of alienation in yourself, poisoning your relationships, because people can sense your judgment and condescension, and, perhaps worst of all, that attitude keeps you in the illusion of separateness, cutting you off from the higher, some would say highest, spiritual truth, which is that we are all One.
Another example:
if your unconscious programming, self images and beliefs about yourself, perhaps picked up in childhood, is that you are
–bad, weak, unhealthy, undisciplined, damaged or wounded. Do you deserve to be happy,
seor whatever your negative programming is–
then you may find yourself constantly fighting a losing battle against the unseen foe of your unconscious/subconscious negative self images and beliefs.
If you are trying to change or accomplish anything in your life, you need to look inside at what your self images and beliefs are. The most important part of positive change and accomplishment, is releasing the dis-empowering self images and beliefs and replacing them with empowering self images and beliefs. At the minimum, the belief that you CAN change and grow, and if you can, add easily.
Can you tell that i am writing from personal experience. I wish that i were the only person that this applies to, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Furthermore, what are your less personal beliefs. For example
*What are your metaphysical beliefs, the framework, the lens through which you view everything, about the nature of the universe. the rules of the game, so to speak, and about other people and “humanity”.
Is the universe inherently a loving, hostile, or neutral place. is there enough for everybody, or not”
Is there some sort of God, Great Spirit, or whatever. What are your beliefs regarding that, and how it affects your everyday life.
Do you “create your own reality”, and to what extent. How much, or how little, ultimate control do you believe that you have over your own life. Are you totally at the mercy of greater forces, such as the unemployment rate, or do you have some input into your own situation, and how much.
*What are your beliefs about people and the society you find yourself in. This is a big one.
Are people inherently good, bad, or whatever. Inherently selfish or unselfish, conscious or unconscious?
Are you at the mercy of your genes?
Etc.
All these deeper beliefs really do affect, in a big way, your experience and your possibilities in your life.
__________________________________________________
Overview The goal of most of us is to be happy and healthy The question is, what are the best ways to do this?
ask yourself these 2 questions:
1) am i willing to be, am i allowing myself to be, do i feel i deserve to be, happy? 2) am i willing to, am i allowing myself to, do i deserve to, know the Self?
Actually, I believe that it is everyone’s purpose in life to be the best human being they can be.
It amazes me that people spent worlds of time pursuing material goals, yet do not even take the time to give their bodies the rest and movement they need to be physically healthy, let alone do the work of becoming mentally and emotionally healthy.
People seem to invest in everything but themselves.
I realize the fear that drives so much of this, and i realize that often the drive for material success is based on self worth issues, and i think that it is so important to invest the time necessary to do the things which truly create health and happiness.
Make that top priority in your life, put in the time and diligent effort, and you will prosper. My firm conviction is that our unconscious runs our lives.
Everybody says they want to be healthy and happy, but from what i can tell, their conscious minds may be saying yes, but their unconscious is saying NO!
This is not done by willpower, but by listening and finding better alternatives for your subsconscious to achieve it’s goals. Also, noticed i use the word allowing. We all so clearly have the urge to be happy and healthy, and i don’t think we have to force ourselves to do the things which are good for us, i think that we would naturally do them, if our subconscious motivations were truly to be happy and healthy.The best explanation i have found for why we don’t do this, is that in our earlier years we get an attitude towards ourselves, an attitude which says “i deserve to be happy”, or an attitude which says ” I deserve to suffer”, and then we do everything in our power to make this come true.For a start, explore these books: NLP, The New Technology of Achievement You Can Heal Your Life -Louise Hay Bodymind Ken Dychtwald Once your conscious and unconscious are truly in alignment with the goal of creating health and happiness for yourself, then there are a million practices and techniques, and you will naturally be drawn to the ones which are best for you in any given moment. People have physical body, mind, emotions (which are the link between body and mind), and energy body. For everyone i would recommend daily practice of meditation and Qigong, which nourishes the energetic pathways of your body. Just as your car needs gas, and your cellphone needs charging, so too does your energy. Then, at the most basic, your physical body basically needs proper nutrition, movement/exercise, and rest
——————
“Everything you want to be, you will be in the end”,
the Moody Blues, from the song nights in white satin
“Do the work, get the paycheck”
Jay Dancing Bear
Practices are what transform us
We spend hours reading the paper or watching TV and think nothing of it. Is it such a big deal to meditate or do yoga for an hour?
The phrases personal growth, higher consciousness, enlightenment, get used a lot. What do they mean?To me, personal growth and transformation means, are we better off than we were, even though we’re not perfect yet, and probably never will be. In my own case, i used to have a mind filled with angry thoughts all the time. I have a lot less these days. In that way, i feel i have higher consciousness than i did, more peace, better health. Perhaps there is some absolute state called enlightenment, I don’t know. What I do know, is that
What we can all experience is to feel better.
Information is like hearing about food. Yes, it’s important to know what to eat, and Practices are the eating. Whether it’s a yoga workout, a sufi wazifa, tibetan tong-len, or Christian Stations of the Cross. Do the work, get the paycheck. There are no shortcuts. The secret of practicing is to focus on what you do, not what you don’t do. For years i set myself goals, i will do yoga one hour a day, i will eat this, i will not eat that, and of course so often i didn’t do it. I always felt like i was behind, trying to catch up, to make up for the workout i missed yesterday, or the ice cream i ate. It didn’t work. The day i started making progress in my life was the day i started counting every bite of good food as a victory, every minute of yoga as a victory, feeling good about what i had done, not worrying about what i hadn’t. Just do something each day. If you don’t do exactly the workout you planned, OK, just do something. It all adds up. Intention, motivation are key. The more your motivations are unselfish, the more power there is in your practice, and the truth is, we all start from selfishness. We all start from where we are, right now, in this moment. Start Now!
Selfishness causes dis-ease!
a quote from the Dhammapada, a buddhist wisdom book. translation Thomas Byrom, Shambala books, 1993
We are what we think All that we are arises with our thoughts With our thoughts we make the world Speak or act with an impure mind And trouble will follow you As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart
We are what we think all that we are arises with our thoughts with our thoughts we make the world Speak or act with a pure mind and happiness will follow you as your shadow, unshakeable
Look how he abused me and beat me How he threw me down and robbed me Live with such thoughts and you live in hate Look how he abused me and beat me How he threw me down and robbed me Abandon such thoughts and live in love
In this world we encounter and are aware of much bad behaviour. It is important to do our best to not condone or allow this, but the spirit, the state of mind, we have towards these “wrongs”, is crucial to our own health and happiness. i feel compelled to add one thought here. I said that the greatest key is what we choose to think about.
The mystics tell us that the key is connection with Spirit, what some call God. I believe that this is true, but for most of us, on the level of consciousness we live on, the more immediate answer is watching the content of our mind and choosing good thoughts. On the simplest level, if we find ourselves thinking “he abused me,” etc., we can recite some affirmation, mantra, prayer, or even baseball statistics, anything to keep from going into anger and bitterness. Wisdom is realizing Them is us Can i explain that? No. You either feel it to be true, or not. Let’s leave it at that.,
————————- Be as conscious as you can be in every thought, word and deed of your life that’s a pretty tall order, but that’s what being alive is about, being fully conscious.
“you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”
What we all really need and seek is love. Once you get past your Physical needs, which are what most people focus on and put so much of their time and energy into, i think our deepest need is love. Love is connection. This implies connection with others, connection with spirit, and connection with ourselves. Connections and intimacy of all sorts, including touch, conversation, sex, understanding, fulfillment, self expression, being of service to others, and you can probably add to this list.
Time is the coin of the realm
Whatever you do in your life, you need the time to do it. Time is subjective. If you are low energy, an hour can feel like five minutes. If your chi is high, five minutes can feel like an hour. No matter what, you must make the time available to yourself to charge your own batteries, which means doing practices such as meditation and yoga.
Life is a marathon, not a sprint
Sustainable is an important word these days. Living a sustainable life is not just about how you spend your money, it’s about how you live your life. Are you living a life which creates joy and health, for yourself and others, or are you run down, tired, unhappy? Could you live the life that you are living: eating the food you eat, doing the job you do, for the amount of hours you are working, functioning emotionally in the way you are functioning, and all the rest for the next 40 years, and be happy and healthy?
Be totally honest with yourself about who and how you are and have acted. this might almost be the key to everything, because so many people seem to be so invested in their ego and denial. The first step to change is admitting the truth to yourself.
As far as i can tell, so many Americans come out of their childhoods deeply wounded, and then ignore or deny their pain, and sooner or later it catches up with them. Now i’m not suggesting wallowing in your pain, because that’s almost worse, but there is a balance to be struck, and it starts with facing as it is, now, here, in this moment. Be willing to face every shadow in your psyche, and remember the deepest truth, that ultimately we are spirit. Don’t get stuck in problem solving, and don’t use that as an excuse for not facing your flaws. Love, accept and forgive yourself exactly as you are right now, in this moment, with all your faults and sins, with whatever mistakes, small or terrible, you may have made. Extend that love, acceptance and forgiveness to all beings, particularly to those against whom you have any sort of anger or grudge. To the extent to which you forgive them, you are forgiven.Remember that the bottom line truth of many, perhaps most, spiritual teachings is that there is nothing but god, or spirit, or whatever word you want to use, which means that we are part of It. Underneath our human imperfection is divine perfection, and the best problem solving you can do is to realize that truth, and i am not speaking about intellectual realization, but spiritual realization that you feel. The deepest, most important changes in a person’s life are the changes in consciousness. The more we bring our human consciousness into alignment with divine consciousness, the healthier our thoughts, words and deeds, the less mistakes we make, and the easier and happier our lives get.
Pain and suffering
Pain is a physical sensation. Suffering is wanting things to be different than they are. Resistance is suffering.This is subtle. Certainly if your child is sick, or if people are being tortured, it is important to do everything you can to help. However, if in your mind, the voice is saying “this sucks, this really sucks, they are horrible people”, and as a consequence, you are getting stressed, your blood pressure is going up, etc., that helps nobody, and hurts you, and hurts your ability to help and be effective in your attempts to help. I realize just how easy this is to write, and how hard it can be to practice. All we can do is the best we are capable of, in any given moment, but remember, the mind thinks only one thought at a time. If you consciously recite an affirmation or mantra or prayer or anything, that is what you will be thinking, rather than “he beat me, he robbed me, he abused me”. _______________________________
Why do we so often not do what is good for us, and do what is not good for us?
Smokers know they shouldn’t smoke, junkies know it’s killing them, women consistently attracted to bastards know they are suffering, yet they all continue. We all know we should eat right, exercise, rest more, yet so often we don’t. Why is this? I found an excellent answer in the Louise Hay book, You Can Heal Your Life, probably the best self help book i’ve ever read. Her answer, as i understand it, is that it all stems from our internal attitudes toward ourselves. Do we really love ourselves, not in a narcissistic, superficial way, but in a deep way. Do we believe that we deserve good, or do we somehow believe that we are bad, and deserve punishment, and so our lives vary from attracting and creating pain and suffering into our lives, to the less extreme not allowing ourselves all the joy and abundance we could have, to really letting ourselves feel good. I’ll give you an example from my own life. I know that doing my daily yoga practice is the best thing in the world for me, yet i sometimes go weeks without it. Now Louise has an exercise, in which you look into a mirror and say to yourself, i love myself, over and over again. Sounds hokey, doesn’t it. Well, when i do this, suddenly i find myself doing my yoga, eating better, feeling better. For whatever reason, i was not allowing myself to feel good.I’ll go a little farther. I personally believe that we are all telepathic, that on some level we call people into our lives, that somehow we know the opportunities out there for jobs, etc., and allow or don’t allow ourselves to manifest them. On a more basic level, our attitudes, whether we wake up feeling positive, or negative, because everything comes down to a feeling, doesn’t it.The common world view is that we are victims, the events of our lives often just happen to us. I’m not going to go so far as to say everything that happens is under our metaphysical control, but i will say that my belief is that we live in a loving universe that wants us to be happy, and if we love ourselves, we maximize the joy available to us, and i really do believe that so often, we create our own suffering. This is a deep subject, why is there suffering in the world.
Chi, prana, energy.
The Chinese word is Chi, the Hindu word is prana, what it means is your vital energy, your life force. Think of it in the same way you think of the energy in a battery, a rechargeable battery. Step one is to learn how to recharge your battery. Step two is to learn how to run on electricity, so to speak, how to tap into universal energy as you go about your activites. The word energy gets used very loosely. I am talking about a specific, quantifiable force which, if we had the proper equipment, we could measure and say, for example, you have 85 units of life energy. Perhaps we could measure before and after a set of angry thoughts, saying, you had 85 units before getting angry, now only 70 afterwards.My experience of my life is that if i have done practices to build my chi, my personal energy, then all of a sudden everything seems to go right. Appointments are on time, sessions are good, i perform well whatever i am doing. Conversely, when my energy is depleted, things seem to tend to go wrong. Start noticing in your own life if this is how it is for you, and if so, you now have a tool to make a bad day turn good, which is to take some time to do some practices.
Take responsibility for your emotions it is just as much of a mistake to take offense, as to give offense
Many people go through life blaming others for their feelings. They have very little or no control over their reactions, and they suffer for it. Nobody “made” you feel angry, sad, whatever. They acted a certain way, you reacted a certain way. It is your responsibility to learn techniques of the mind to keep balance. The buddhists stress this. It can be learned.Let’s distinguish between pain and suffering. Pain is when someone slaps you. Suffering is how your emotions feel in reaction to that.Speaking from personal experience, life becomes a lot more pleasant when we practice this. We humans make a lot of mistakes, many of them with our words, many of those words spoken thoughtlessly, in haste, fear, anger. Let’s all cut each other some slack for our mistakes. What do you value?The song said everything you want to be. Well, what do you want to be, what is your ideal, as Edgar Cayce put it. Forget the lip service, be honest with yourself. Put your time and energy at the service of what you value and you’ll get it,. See deeply, with insight, as the Tibetans put it, what is truly valuable, and then be honest with yourself, and if you really want to be rich and famous, go for it, because you can’t lie to yourself. Sooner or later life will educate you as to what is truly valuable.there is no security in this world. No matter how much money you have, no matter how good your health, how wonderful your family, how great your job, you could lose it all. A car crash, stock market crash, hurricane, etc., your life changes. The only real security is your relationship to God/spirit/the universe/whatever you call it, your only dependable resources are the treasures of character/spirit/soul, which you have built up through practices. Knowing this, we appreciate what we have more, because in truth, we can not take anything for granted.
The Body Doesn’t Lie
You can tell yourself anything, but your body will tell you the truth, and if the way you are living isn’t serving you in the deepest sense, your body will call your attention to it, probably you’ll have health problems. If you don’t feel physically good, if you are not experiencing the joy of being in your body,if your mind is not at peace, if you do not have good relations with people, if you are always rushing around, never have enough time, you are poor, no matter what your net worth. It’s time to do some work on yourself.
Nature is the healer
One of my definitions of poverty is being indoors in nice weather. Being in nature is healing to body, mind, and connects us with soul. Nature is the temple. It’s a pity that some people have become so cut off from the sky, the breezes, the trees, the air.If you are some poor soul who has become so used to heated rooms and conditioned air, you may have to make a gradual transition. Bundle up if you feel cold, take it slow, but get used to being outdoors and the odds are very high your spirits will improve.have-do-be or be-do-have I took a number of workshops with a woman named Dominique Sire. She used to say, most people think you HAVE something, for example money, so you DO something, for example take a vacation, so you ARE something, for example happy. She used to say that actually it works the other way. You ARE something, for example peaceful and happy, so you DO something, for example create a work of art, so you HAVE something, for example, money when you sell itIn Zen they say, no attainment, and nothing to attain. happiness is wanting what you have, not having what you want. be here now, it’s all you really have
Peace=acceptance
(not to be confused with inaction or condoning bad behaviour) So far much of what I have written seems to be directly opposed to these ideas. It is not. If you are feeling the need to make changes in your life, acceptance is accepting that feeling and doing the work. The masters tell us that at some point one gets the understanding that it’s all perfect just as it is. I believe that, but not being there yet, the path of spiritual evolution involves doing the work. The Buddha’s last words were “work out your salvation with diligence”, even though eventually we may see that it was all a game.
the 168 exercise:
there are 168 hours in a week. How do you spend them? And how would you like to spend them? Get 168 coins, chips, etc. First, the ideal How many hours a week would be healthy for you to sleep. Put those off to the side. How many hours personal grooming, showers, etc. Subtract. How many hours would be good for you to exercise, meditate, study spiritual texts. How many hours for quality food preparation and eating. How much time with family and friends. Time is the most important family value. How much time to be a good citizen, educating yourself about issues. Ideally, how many hours of meaningful work, including commute. What else.Now the way it is.First, how many hours work and commute. Now go down the list.I realize all the difficulties of how jobs usually work, paying for health care, etc., etc., and it is important to tell the truth. Allow yourself to see how it really is, how so many important parts of your life get shorted,then do your best to realize the ideal.What you will probably find is that in an ideal situation work would occupy 15-25 hours a week, including commute. This means you probably need to want less, so you need less money, which includes be very efficient with every dollar you spend, and earn more per hour, a minimum of $25/hr. This probably means that you must work for yourself, because most employers don’t pay that.as for children, in truth, the economics of this society are not set up for having children, at least not having time to spend with them, and if you have no time for your child, isn’t it cruel to bring him or her into the world______________________________
The Forgiveness Mantra
I,___, forgive ____ for any harm they may have done me, knowingly or unknowingly, intentionally or unintentionally, by omission or comission, in thought, word, or deed, and I,___, ask forgiveness for any harm i may have done ___, knowingly or unknowingly, intentionally or unintentionally, in thought, word, or deed. My ideals which is to say, the ideas which I have found will benefit me the most, are
-
- Open the heart
- Live mindfully
1) Open the heart-how can one describe intangibles such as open heart or closed heart? In my experience I can feel them almost as physical sensations, warmth or coldness in my body and emotions. A lot of practices involve becoming sensitive to what is going on inside ones self, body, feelings, mind. One can feel the state of the heart and it’s effects in our life. To get philosophical for a moment, until we feel our connection with other beings, we are alone on a desert island, unable to manifest those parts of ourselves which can only exist in relation to others. How to keep connection with others, without feeling overwhelmed by all the pain and suffering in the world? What is one’s role and responsibility regarding others? These are keys which require developing spiritual understanding.As of this writing this is the key issue I am working on. How to see all the mistakes made by people, mistakes which hurt themselves and others, mistakes which seem to be made over and over again without learning seeming to take place, especially my own stupidity and mistakes which I have made a thousand times, how to see all that and not get fearful, angry, judgmental, resentful, patronizing, or close the heart, that is the $64,000 question. Put another way, if there is a God, or some sort of guiding, benevolent spirit in the world, how can all this suffering be? The little glimpses of answer I have found have come in meditation or in Spiritual texts, which say that our true nature is spirit and this world is like a movie we go to, but we always go home at the end. According to these texts we are all manifestations of Spirit, as all the cells in our bodies are parts of us, as all the drops of water in the ocean are all part of the ocean. Literally, to hurt another is to hurt oneself. 2) Live mindfully How much of the time are we really awake, really feeling what is going on in our bodies, feelings and minds?How much of the time are we on automatic, going through the motions without really being there?How much do we really feel the sensations in our body?How much are we aware of what our motivations are, what’s really going on inside our psyches?The western technological world is filled with distractions which keep us from awareness. Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese buddhist teacher, says to live without being mindful is to be almost like a dead person. I think he’s right. Have you ever eaten without tasting the food because your mind is busy, or not enjoyed what you’re doing because you’re thinking of what you’re going to do next. I have, all too often I still do, and it’s not fun. I want to enjoy my life.Quieting the mind of the endless mental chatter and worrying which I can feel draining me. The times my mind is peaceful I feel my body more, get more done and am much happier. The mind is a very useful tool, and has an important place in life, but just like a chainsaw it’s better to have it quiet and not using up power when not in use.
My Basic Practices
The core of my practices are:
- meditation- mindfulness practice, giving attention to body, breath and mind, quieting mental noise, noticing any toxic thoughts, such as anger, fear, resentment, which in the past I have been quite prone to
- movement, such as tai chi and yoga
- healthy eating
- Reading and listening to beneficial books and tapes
I’m basically selfish and practical, I do this stuff because it helps me, because I have found that I feel happier and healthier than when I don’t do it. When I do these practices I feel better immediately, and as time goes on I can feel the cumulative benefits. I measure the progress of my life by how much peace, health and happiness I experience on a moment to moment, day to day basis, not how much wealth or fame I haveGoals The goal of my life is to find peace, happiness and health, which includes living in a peaceful, healthy and happy world. The best way I have found to do this is by doing practices which benefit me, such as meditation, yoga and healthy lifestyle, and then acting in the world from a centered, healthy space.My current challenge is to more manifest my inner knowing as worldly action, an area in which I have been deficient. I’ve always looked to role models, people to look to for examples of how to live. For many years it was Ram Dass. Now it is the Dalai Lama.
Self Educating
When we grew up, most of us were handed a program for our lives, something like go to school, get out of school and get a job, get married, buy a house, have kids, etc. There are other programs too. There’s nothing wrong with that program, the question is, is it the right program for you? You have to look inside, something you were probably never taught to do, perhaps even discouraged from doing, and find your own truth.
finding your calling
finding your calling in life is one of the most important elements of human existence, because it gives you a sense of purpose.Your calling is what you want to do, what moves you, what inspires you, what you enjoy and want to spend your time doing, in a deep sense. It could be art, it could be plumbing, which can really give you the satisfaction of a job well done. It could be being a parent. There are no higher or lower callings. If you love seeing a clean floor, it is just as valid a calling as being an attorney.Your calling may or may not be the way you earn money, although, given a creative approach, it’s amazing how often a way can be found to have your calling support you financially.My belief is that everyone has a calling in life. Some people are lucky enough to know what it is right away, most people have to look for it. The way to do this is through practices, such as various forms of vision quest, prayer, meditation, through purifying your energy. If you keep seeking, sooner or later it will come.educating yourselfIn school you were taught what employers needed you to know, so that you could be a good slave. Obey authority without questioning. sit inside on a nice day, ignore your body, esteem yourself based on test scores, work for rewards, and worse.Bob Dylan said “those who must obey authority, that they do not respect in any degree” true authority is earned, people grant it because they feel the integrity and rightness of what is being said, Now it’s time to learn the skills you need to be useful to yourself and others. The most important life skills are: 1) how to take care of yourself, body, mind, emotions, spirit 2) how to communicate and deal with others 3) how to be a good citizen of city, state, country, planet My basic suggestions would be to: learn to meditate, do chi gung and yoga, learn non-violent communication, study books by great teachers, cultivate compassion for all beings, eat organic and simple food, work to heal your own psychological issues, keep a good attitude, and do service for others through finding your calling.That’s just what i know, what has worked for me. It’s up to you to find your own path. Mind You Can Heal Your Life, Louise Hay Non Violent Communication, Marshall Rosenberg The Art of Happiness, the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler NLP, the new Technology of Achievement At one point in time i wrestled with the question of whether thoughts create emotions, or emotions created thoughts. By observation, i was led to the conclusion that thoughts create emotions. When we tell each other our stories, they are filled with names, dates and places. All well and good, and there’s more. The real story is what went on in our minds, how we felt. For example, my own story. When i was younger, my mind was filled with thoughts of anger and resentment. He did this, she did that, over and over, and of course my health suffered, especially my health and digestion.One day, one particular moment, in my 30s, i had one more angry thought, and i noticed a twinge in my stomach. I started observing, and i noticed that whenever i got an angry or resentful thought i would get a twinge in my stomach, so i started using tools, such as affirmations, to replace the negative thoughts. From that day my health started improving. I still sometimes slip into negativity, but now i know conclusively that i injure myself when i think, say or do any sort of violence but now i know conclusively that i injure myself when i think, say or do any sort of violence.
The Forgiveness Mantra
I,___, forgive ____ for any harm they may have done me, knowingly or unknowingly, intentionally or unintentionally, by omission or comission, in thought, word, or deed, and I,___, ask forgiveness for any harm i may have done ___, knowingly or unknowingly, intentionally or unintentionally, in thought, word, or deed. This has helped me to make peace with so many people i was angry at. When i first learned this, at the California Vipassana Center, it changed my life. Everyone knows that if you hit someone, that is violence against them, but what if saying an angry word against someone is also violence? What if even thinking an angry thought against them is violence? and all violence to others is violence to ourselves, to our own happiness and peace of mind My belief is that every living being in the world is telepathically connected, that this is part of what goes on in the so-called “unused” part of our brains. What if that’s true. What if every word we ever spoke about people is known to them, or at least felt on a subconscious level? How do you feel when somebody says something bad about you?
- What if all the hate speech against george bush and the government is perceived by them on some level.
- What if the loose words i spoke about ___ somehow are felt by them.
- What if all the suffering life forms on the planet are part of the reason for the epidemic of depression and prozac in this country, because we really do feel their pain.
- What if we really accept the idea that hurting others is hurting ourselves, and that this includes talking shit about “bad” people.
Even if all that is too far out for you, it is true that physiologically negativity equates to stress and creates toxins in our bodies.
Louise Hay
I’ve read a lot of books, listened to a lot of tapes, gone to a lot of workshops, learned a lot of practices. Information is useful, but only insomuch as one does the practices and gets transformation. In all of the “spiritual” (what isn’t?), metaphysical, self help and health stuff I’ve encountered perhaps the single most useful idea I have come across is from Louise Hay’s You Can Heal Your Life, which I most highly recommend to everyone. Whenever I feel stuck, coming back to the practices and ideas in this book helps me. To paraphrase and embellish, Louise believes that our lives mirror back to us how we really feel about ourselves, that we attract or create circumstances which reflect our inner self opinion. Do we really love, accept and forgive ourselves, not in a vain, small way, but more in the sense of the unconditional love of a mother for a child, or the Christian idea of Jesus loving, accepting and forgiving everyone, or do we feel bad about ourselves, judge, despise, criticize ourselves, have low or no self esteem, etc? Do we feel bad about ourselves because of our bad or stupid actions, or do we commit bad actions because we feel bad about ourselves? I believe it’s the second, we mess up because of bad feelings we have about ourselves. A key distinction is between a person’s self and their actions. Loving and forgiving oneself does not mean condoning bad actions. In her book Louise says people think they need to feel bad about themselves or else they think that they won’t change, but she thinks that just perpetuates the cycle. I agree with her. In my experience, when I do the exercises in her book a few hours later or the next day I find myself naturally doing a long session of the practices which make me feel great, without making any special effort, and I find myself not doing foolish and self destructive actions. 1) negative thoughts affect the body in the same way as stress, releasing toxins into the body. 2) forgiveness grants us peace of mind, and improves relations with people 3) feeling good about yourself improves your life in every way. to simplify and paraphrase, she says that early in life we pick up attitudes towards ourselves, for example believing that we deserve good things in our life, or deserve punishment, and we then attract people into our life and create the circumstances to make those beliefs happen. Read this book. We view the world through the sunglasses of our beliefs. What are your beliefs about the nature of God/the universe/whatever you call it. Do you believe: a) the universe is a hostile place b) the universe is neutral c) the universe loves us and wants us to be happy Is there a set of rules we have to follow to keep god happy? do we need to earn love? do we have to struggle to survive? is there enough for everybody? Body Bodies need good food, good movement, good rest Hanna Somatics Yoga Chi Gung/Tai Chi FOODThere are many theories of what to eat, and they all agree on certain basic points: 1) Don’t eat poison. Pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc. The suffix cide means poison. “Organic” food means it was grown without poison. Is it really that radical a concept to say, don’t eat poison? 2) Eat whole foods. The less processed the better. 3) Cut out the white sugar 4) how you eat is as important as what you eat. Take the time to relax and enjoy your food. 5) Microwave ovens belong in garbage cans, not kitchens 6) filter your water or buy spring water. Flouride is poison there is so much more i could say. Google the following topics Macrobiotics Raw Foods Food Combining Food Complementarity. For too many people in this society, one wonders why their spirits bothered taking a body. They don’t eat good food, don’t move much, don’t enjoy satisfying sex. The main function of their bodies seems to be to give them pain.Hedonism and over-indulgence lead to spiritual emptiness; fear and suppression, lack of pleasure, leads to spiritual emptiness.Many spiritual traditions teach that the body is an obstacle, something to overcome. I come more from the tantric idea, our bodies are a way to enlightenment. The channelled entity Emmanuel says, you’re in school, why not take the program.We have bodies, let’s enjoy them.here is poem i wrote. Naked Pagan A naked pagan dancing with the sky I am alien in your world Your houses, factories, TV sets It is difficult for me to understand how can you live this way? but you do I need trees, grass, sky Rushing rivers and willing consorts fresh strawberries picked from the ground You tell me of vaccines, hospitals, guaranteed food supply heat in the winterYes, these are good things when enjoyed properly but why give up the joy of feeling the sun on your heart the waves on your flesh trances the companionship of spirit Why do you seem to lack joy,contentment,fulfillment serenity, and integrityYou sell yourself to the highest bidder and live in fear of not selling yourself Why can you not find a way to have it all If this technology is so wonderful why are so many unhappy sick at heart filled with all manner of diseased emotions and homeless in the streetsI don’t understandThe gifts I offer you think worthlessI offer the sand, the sea the earth, the sky compassion and deep feelingsWhat you want from me is to be a robot For that I may earn enough to buy food and pay rent since you have set a price on every inch of the earth by what right do you control this landI don’t understand but, after all I am onlyA naked pagan On being a VegetarianI believe that the evidence of our bodies is that we are built to be vegetarians. Fingers-suitable for ripping out a throat, or picking a strawberry? Teeth-better for ripping out a throat, or eating an apple? Intestines-carnivores have relatively short intestines for their body size, herbivores long. our intestines are much closer to herbivore.When i got the name dancing bear, in 1988, i had been a vegetarian for 7 years and i had a lot of attitudes about it. being given a native name got me thinking, because the Native Americans ate meat and still do. Also, i’ve know people who were vegetarians for 18 years and started eating small amounts of meat. When i asked them why, they said they felt their bodies needed it, and i have to respect that.What i decided was that, to me, how the animal lived is the most important thing. I’m not happy with the idea of killing, but there’s a big difference between: a) an animal living a free life, killed with respect and appreciation, by people who only take what they need, and b) concentration camps for animals (yes, that’s really what they’re called, CAFO concentrated animal feeding operation), where animals are systematically tortured (that’s what it amounts to), cruelly butchered, chickens can’t even peck. supplying people buying non descript red packages, that has no resemblance to an animal, so nobody has to feel bad. see Diet for a New America, by john robbinsIt just feels wrong.So i say this. If you want to keep Elsie the cow in your backyard, then one day cut her throat, and hack her into little bits, go ahead. If you feel you must eat meat, how much do you need, a big steak, or more like chicken chow mein, with little bits, and always try to buy from an animal that was treated decently during it’s life and killed as painlessly as possible.I believe that people do take on the consciousness of what we eat, and i believe that the cause of much of the suffering people experience is the energy of the animals they ate.I wrote a song calledHITLERHitler slaughtered the jews, his actions were monstrous he put them in ovens and pulled out their teeth and one thing we do, that hitler never did raise them to kill them, and eat them for beefhitler’s actions were monstrous, oh yes that’s true and what about all the things that we do to all the animals, we eat and use and all of that pain, all comes back to youall of those souls, all of that suffering crying for help, where is relief one thing we do, hitler never did raise them to kill them and eat them for beefhitler took six million lives and how many pigs are waiting to die to turn into bacon, to sausage, and ham baked in an oven and fried in a panbaked in an oven, fried in a pan baby cows into veal, baby sheep into lamb cows into beef, pigs into ham baked in an oven, fried in a pancopyright 2008 JDB
Personal Growth Guidance Sessions and Workshops
If you have gotten interested in personal growth, and would like to speak with a man who has been actively pursuing his own personal growth for the past 36 years, i offer you my services. After thinking about it for years, I am now hanging out my shingle as a personal growth advisor. I want to make clear that I am not formally trained as a teacher by any particular school, and I make no claims other than that I am sincere in my desire to share my knowledge. These ideas may work for you or may not, I make no guarantees, and I take no responsibility for any effects or consequences you experience, good or bad. You are responsible for the use you make of what I offer, just as you would reap the gains or losses of stock market advice. I am simply giving you my best understanding as of now, and next week my understanding might grow to a different realization, as might yours.I have spent a lot of time and money in pursuit of my own personal growth. I have meditated, done yoga, tai chi, worked with my diet, have taken workshops, read countless books, listened to tapes, watched videos, lived at Esalen and Harbin, and spent many, many hours of my life doing practices. It is the main focus of my life, what i live for. I love it, and it has improved my life so much. I am far from perfect and still have challenges in my life, but the skills and tools i have learned have served me well and, i believe, will serve you to be healthier and happier. My life has improved tremendously as a result of the techniques and practices which I have learned and practiced.INDIVIDUAL GUIDANCE SESSIONSI offer very simple sessions. We talk, perhaps over tea, perhaps while taking a walk. You tell me a little bit about what’s going on in your life, what you’re looking for, i offer you some suggestions on how to manifest it, how to be happier and healthier. Then it’s up to you to do the practices.
Personal Growth WorkshopFor BeginnersThe goal of this workshop is to give you an experience of being awake, alive, in your body, in community. This is a beginner’s workshop, we’re not going to do anything radical. It’s for people who are becoming interested in personal growth, and want an easy introduction, from an experienced walker on the path. Remember, you have the choice to participate or not in any exercise. This workshop is a grab bag of different things i’ve learned over the years. It is different every time. if you take it ten times, it will never be the same twice.The opening is the same, I will say, as a musician i know that the most important thing is to tune up before we start. Sound tunes our energy, our chakras. Let’s stand up, hold hands in a circle, right hand down, left hand up, because traditionally we give with our right and recieve with our left, forming a circle of energy, and let’s tone, opening our mouths and throats, allowing the sound OMmm to vibrate us. We’re going to do this for a while, maybe 5 minutes. It’s not about how it sounds, as far as quality of singing voice, it’s about how it feels in your body, letting it vibrate you.The next thing we will do is sit down, in a circle, and briefly introduce ourselves, giving our name and why we’re here.After that, we’ll see.If you want, you can get some friends together, and we’ll set up a workshop just for you!Benefits* Learn ideas and practices which will help you to be healthier and happier * Get a new perspective on our needs and priorities * Be more comfortable with ourselves and other people* Reconnect with ourselves and natur* Be in community with people who share our interest in personal growth> Methods toning movement breath music singing dancing mirror work council work honesty massage (clothes on) journaling and more! Beautiful Path I walk this path every day watching my breath and hearing my mind raceIt’s a beautiful path often I don’t see it but when I do it’s a beautiful path
Socrates Thalassos (formerly jay dancing bear) -----The Adventure Continues! 