Okay, first of all a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who donated the past few days. I am tremendously grateful to each and every one of you and I’d like you to know that yes, your gift makes a big difference. Not only that, it’s been really cool to hear some of the stories that have come forth after donating. For example, one reader/friend donated to me and also wanted to get a new pair of dance shoes. She then shared with me that the very next day, her dance teacher flat out gave her exactly the dance shoes she wanted and wouldn’t let her pay for them. Get this… the cost of the dance shoes was exactly the amount she’d donated! It’s really cool to see this flow of giving and receiving, how it works in both directions, and it’s on this note that I’d like to begin this post.

It seems like a big part of “being in the flow” is not only being open to receiving abundant blessings from the universe, from other people, and from every which way, but also being open to give what you have to offer. It’s important for both ends of the giving/receiving pipe be open for the best experience of flow. Now by giving, this doesn’t necessarily imply giving physical stuff like money or your possessions, although that’s certainly just as much a part of it as anything else. Less tangible things like a helping hand, a kind smile, an encouraging word, or even your time… these things can all be HUGE gifts… It seems like the greatest gift you can give is the gift of yourself in whatever form you show up. I don’t mean to make this sound like “I’m all that” or “I’m God’s gift to humanity” in an egotistical sense or any of that nonsense, but it seems like when you just naturally show up and shine your light, that seems to impact people more than anything you could possibly do by trying to give for whatever reason. It’s pretty surprising to me still to see over and over that life, for whatever reason, simply works best when I just give up trying to manifest this or make that happen or get this person to respond that way or any of that effort-based stuff… When I say “enough already” and just be myself and enjoy and appreciate what I already DO have, life is FAR more enjoyable, new things and people show up much more easily, and everything just works BETTER.

Since I’m enjoying just being myself more and more these days as opposed to trying to deliberately play the role of teacher or student as if this was all so serious :lol , let’s have a little fun here. Let’s tell a little story today… and since we’re playing like children, let’s make this story like a picture book. How ’bout that?

Off to the Mountains!

Okay, so the weather forecast this week called for sunny and clear skies up in the mountains, so I headed to the local REI to talk to people about places to go camping. Sure enough, I stumbled right into a couple talking to a guy about this exact thing, so I mozied right on in to the conversation. Synchronicity, you rock! The guy suggested two different places, one of which intuitively lit up more for me than the other. After picking up a detailed map of the area, I hopped into the car and started driving. The trail I was going to visit was actually a snowshoe trail and I don’t own a pair of showshoes yet, but the intuition said go anyways so off I went regardless!

There’s a road that heads up into the mountains through a canyon from Boulder to Nederland. You gain about 3,000 feet of elevation here. At the bottom of the canyon there was a guy thumbing it so I pulled over and picked him up. Turns out he was a really cool guy, lived in Georgia as well, and even knew my friend who lives up in Ned. Small world!! Apparently it’s really common to hitch between Ned and Boulder. He told me that the nickname for that road was the hippy elevator and I had a good laugh about it… At one point during the drive I happened to glance over and notice the two cup holders in my car, only one of which had a bottle of water, the one I drink from when driving. I naturally asked if he wanted one and he eagerly accepted, saying that he just had some cocktails with his friends and could use some water. I reached back behind my seat and pulled out a fresh bottle for him. With this experience I really took note of how easily the water I had available blended with his desire for water, like two pieces of the puzzle. The link between the two was a very natural flow that really didn’t take much conscious thought. It’s as if I was guided to look in a certain place which triggered an idea within me.

Questionless Intuition

This is a big part of how I am now transitioning to experiencing intuition.

You see, it used to be that I’d have a few options in front of me and I’d stop and picture myself doing one of the options. Usually one of them would feel more light, expansive, spacious, joyous, exciting, free, light-hearted, easy, and fun. That sense of openness would be my answer. Yet doing it this way, I’d have to stop and deliberately ask and try out a few things, waiting to get that feeling of expansiveness before continuing.

After a while, you start to develop the ability to make that feeling of expansiveness your home. It’s not just your answer to questions, but because a feeling-based way of life. When you start to spend more and more time in this empty expansiveness, you find that there’s a natural arising of things to do, words to speak, places to go, and so on. It’s not just about big things like “Should I move here,” but it also helps guide conversations and the next topic to bring up as we speak. Certain topics have a sort of “vibrational signature” of expansiveness, openness, and light. I like to allow conversations to flow by maintaining that feeling first and foremost and bringing up words and ideas that also “fit” with this feeling.

Sometimes there are things I could say that feel like closure, judgment, and egotism. I’ve noticed that every time I bring up those words or ideas, conversations hit a snag. People don’t react as well. I don’t feel as good. It’s like anything that doesn’t match that feeling of openness and expansiveness doesn’t fit as part of the flow.

And so instead of stopping the flow to ask the intuition ahead of time if this or that is better, it becomes more of a natural continuous flow that you fall into, and you allow every action, word, and movement to be a natural expression of that expansiveness. Instead of a clear “this way” or “that way” that practically beats you over the head with an answer, it starts to become far more subtle so you really have to tune in and pay intention.

That feeling you get from your intuition becomes more than just an answer. It becomes a way of life…

Hiking Out Into the Woods

and so it is on that note that I headed out into the woods. Putting on my snow gear, I headed out into the woods to find a place to set up camp. One of the first potential camp sites I came to was this big clearing which looked to be like a meadow. I considered setting up my tent here, but got a feeling that I should keep walking. It wasn’t until afterwards that I remembered from the map that that wasn’t a meadow, but a frozen lake! Yikes.. that wouldn’t be a comfortable feeling to sleep on top of that…

Continuing to walk along the trail, I spotted this little area next to the trail that offered a perfect place to throw up a tent. It was surrounded by trees which offered a natural windbreak and was still right next to the trail which made for easy access.

That first day I simply sat back and relaxed. In the mountains. Finally…

Above is an afternoon shot. If you look at my boot, you’ll notice how the sun shines in from the side, from the southwest. In the mornings, it would rise from the southeast, right in the dead center of this shot. It would make for a brilliant morning…

One amazing thing about this area is the sound… Atop the spectacular limitless silence you have the wind as it blows across from peak to peak, rustling my tent as it blows by, the very occasional hikers (and dogs) that walk by, the rustling of my gear as I move around, the occasional plane that flies overhead, and the little birds that like to come by. Not much else…

I loved these little snow birds that were super friendly and curious. They’ll fly on over and land on a branch right over my tent or even come down and hop along the snow right next to my tent. I loved the little footprints they’d leave… You know how humans walk one foot in front of the other, leaving a trail of left, right, left, right? Well these little guys hop with both feet together so their tracks are a series of parallel lines that jump across the snow. Here’s one of the birds as he hopped right up to my tent and shared my view with me.

What Happens When You Don’t Get A Response From Your Intuition?

A little backstory about how I wound up coming to Colorado in the first place…

I’d been wanting to go set out and move somewhere more outdoorsy and spiritually open for a while now. Years even. The thing is I’d been too flat out terrified of doing so. Scared of life, basically.

Eventually I worked out the courage to go for it and started considering places to go: California, New Zealand, Colorado, etc. The synchronicities started popping up everywhere… Colorado. Colorado. Colorado. A friend of mine suggested I come on out to Boulder. Of course I’d still have the option to go somewhere else if I didn’t like it, but at least I’d be taking that first step. It sounded like fun, but for some reason I met a lot of resistance to the idea. A lot… I’d really like to do something like this, but could I really do it??

Since I’d been developing my intuitive capacity, I decided that I’d ask it whether or not now was the right time to go, and I’d go with what it said either way. The thing is, I COULDN’T get an answer from it no matter what I tried. How frustrating! It wasn’t fun feeling so indecisive, especially when another person’s plans depend upon your decision…

That whole thing fell through. It wasn’t until later that another friend suggested I check out Telluride, a small skiing town in southwest, CO. That sounded superexciting and when I checked it out, it felt like all systems go! Alright! Got a target! As I started making my plans, selling off the things I didn’t need, my excitement slowly started to fade from Telluride for some reason and Boulder started lighting back up for me. Fine! Alright! You’ve got my attention now. I now see that Telluride was simply being used as bait to get me to MOVE in that general direction. Once I did, it was easy enough to change to Boulder instead.

Here’s a map pointing out the two cities:

I bring up this story because on the second day of my trip out here to the mountains, I was wondering what I should do that morning after waking up. Should I get up and go hike out, hopefully not encountering deep snow along the way? Should I spend time meditating? What would be best for me to do right now? Again, no answer from the intuition…

As I sat in my tent, a few sets of snowshoers hiked past my tent along the trail. Most of the groups were your typical looking hikers, just kinda in zombie-mode as they walked through the woods. Then these two women walked by, both utterly radiant and beaming with joy. One was practically bouncing along the trail while the other looked over at my tent, smiled, and simply said hello. There’s my answer. I quickly put my shoes, grabbed my pack, and hit the trail.

Back In The Flow…

Again, this was another example of not needing to ask and get an answer, but simply relax and allow life to show me the flow in its own perfect time. I met up with these two women along a frozen lake at the end of the trail and sat down with them while we all had lunch together. Turns out that like most people I’d met here in Boulder, they were amazing! It’s soooo common here to be able to approach most anyone and be dive right into a conversation about energy, living in the moment, consciousness, spiritual awareness, following your joy, intuition, and so on. Back in Georgia people like this certainly existed, but it seemed to be more in small pockets within a larger bubble of Christianity. Here finding people who are more open-minded is basically the norm! It’s not that you have to deliberately talk about spirituality per se. You just be yourself, talk about how you live your life, ask them how they live theirs, talk about what you enjoy, ask them what they enjoy, and just talk about whatever comes up in the moment… Remember what I mentioned earlier about being in that feeling place of expansiveness and talking about whatever seems to naturally come from that space?

The three of us had an amazing time together and I really enjoyed their company… It’s so much easier to find people I click with out here.

Another great thing I love is how free and playful people can be out here. It’s so common to see dirt-covered cars out here. You can tell they’ve been out playing! The other day I was out hiking closer to Boulder with a meetup group. We were walking through a muddy patch and looking down at our footing to make sure every foot was placed in a good spot when I heard the familiar sucking sound of someone making impact in the mud. I look up to see this one woman laughing, having landed butt-first right in the mud, just covered in a splattering of brown goop. Since she was down, she played around in the mud a bit and made sure to get some pictures before finally getting up and out of the mud. People aren’t afraid to get dirty here…

On that note, here I am, sitting in a coffee shop back in Boulder, smelling like, well… smelling like you’d expect a person to smell after a few days of being out in the woods.

It was a wonderful drive down out of the mountains… after 3 days and 2 nights. The roads were nice and clear and the drive was so scenic and enjoyable…

It’s great to be down at a lower elevation. It was a bit tough to breathe at times up at 10,000 feet, especially the very first day. Coming back down nearly a mile in elevation it’s a bit different. It’s kinda like when you fast for a few days and then try eating again. Even though you haven’t eaten for days, you can’t eat a normal sized meal. It’s almost like your stomach shrunk. Coming back down from 10,000 feet, I could take a deep breath but it’d be slightly painful with my lungs expanding a bit more than they were used to. Fortunately it doesn’t take very long to acclimate.

Giving and Receiving

It was a really cool couple of days… I got to experience receiving from a lot of people and giving to a lot of people, giving out rides to those who needed them, giving time and sharing joy with those around me, giving food to the homeless on the side of the road, receiving food and snacks from others… There definitely seems to be a sense of liberated and open balance when you’re in the flow. When you need something and ask, it is given. When you have something which someone else needs, it feels great to give. You get to enjoy the way it feels to give and experience what it’s like to have enough NOW.

Also, there’s DEFINITELY a difference between giving from a place of abundance and having more than enough versus giving and feeling like you have less in the end but you do it anyways because it’s the “compassionate” or “spiritual” or “loving” thing to do. It seems like when you give from a place of lack, you experience yourself having less at the cost of the other having more. Win/lose. That’s a good start and it’s well-intentioned, but there is something better. When you give from the feeling place of having enough, the other experiences having more and you (seeing yourself as a Source with yet even more to give) experience having more as well. It winds up being win/win. Again, the key is to come from a feeling place of having enough. It’s not about what external circumstances are showing you. It’s about what feeling place you come from. That’s the key here.

So getting yourself into a place of abundance, well-being, and having enough, that seems to be super-important when it comes to giving. Giving seems to be most enjoyable and most beneficial to everyone when people choose to be in a place of abundance and are open to both giving and receiving. Life flows both ways. In truth, there’s really only one flow happening here, and we’re all open vessels allowing (or resisting) the flow, but never controlling.

A Final Note: Gratitude

Gratitude… gratitude is awesome. Being thankful for what you do have… it’s like this one simple state of being opens you up to the flow, thereby opening yourself up to receiving even more and being able to give even more. It’s almost like gratitude and appreciation (and I’ve never heard anyone say this this way… it’s just coming to me now) opens up a valve for the flow. Saying it now and understanding the LoA, it makes a lot of sense. Abraham calls it “being in the vortex” and this is basically the same thing. This is that.

So “be happy for what you have”… It’s not something your parents tell you when you used to whine about what you wanted and they wanted you to quit whining… Okay, so it may be a little bit of that too but there is a deep wisdom in that statement. “Be happy for what you have.” Really. It’ll transform your life…

and last but not least, let’s play a game called “Spot the Picnic Table!”

Alright so first off, if you haven’t seen Avatar yet, you gotta go watch it!! Whether you choose to watch the movie in 2D or 3D, both offer an amazing experience.

For those of you unfamiliar with the plot, the movie takes place on a distant planet named Pandora that is home to these blue humanoid aliens called the Na’vi. They are very much like the Native Americans with bows and arrows and a deep appreciation and respect for life and an understanding of the interconnectedness of all life. The US military comes in to basically drive them out so they can mine for this mineral called unobtainium, killing off many of the natives in the process.

There are some beautiful spiritual messages in the movie and the way it’s all illustrated is absolutely amazing. Just… wow…

The forest and plantlife on the planet is phosphorescent and iridescent in a very heavenly way and even glows for a moment every time you step on the grass. The sky is full of gorgeous planets and moons. Standing on that planet and looking up into the heavens strangely feels like home…

Their diety is a benevolent goddess named Eywa who is basically the living energy that runs through all things. One particularly great passage from the movie took place when one of characters prays to Eywa to take their side and help during the invasion of the military. Another character responded that Eywa doesn’t take sides. She only helps preserve the balance of life.

Heck, even the credits of the movie were amazing. Make sure you stay past the end and watch them to see how many people were involved in the creation of this film. My jaw literally hung open watching them scroll by. It was so nice to see that many (thousands of) people join together in the name of creating such a conscious movie, helping reinforce the understanding that all this “oneness stuff” isn’t so alternative and out there, but is rapidly becoming integrated as a part of mainstream life.

So yeah, if you haven’t seen this movie, I highly highly recommend checking it out!

For those of you who have seen the movie, what was your experience? What did you like about it? How did the movie impact you?

The other day Matt and I sat down and had another excellent session together. In this one we dove straight into a lot of my conditioning. It was pretty deep and intense, but left me feeling surprisingly light and free in the end.

One thing that really left an impression on me was his level of acceptance towards what is, his love towards ALL of life. You can see him discuss this in the following video. It’s probably one of my favorite videos I’ve seen on living life.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKHbgoXfZzI

One thing I really liked, and I don’t wanna call it a technique because it’s more like a natural expression of the acceptance that rests within, is his response towards “problems” when people tell him that something’s wrong with reality. For example,

“I’m so mad that XYZ happened!”

“Of course you are!”

“But it doesn’t feel fair!”

“Of course it doesn’t!”

“Don’t you think that this shouldn’t have happened?”

“All I know is that what happened happened.”

In an incredibly compassionate and accepting way that I hope gets conveyed in text here, he’s totally allowing the world and others to be as they are. It feels as if the words being spoken with sense of peace and openness in his heart. While he doesn’t follow people where they’re going energetically, he’s fully granting them permission to experience their reality without invalidating or resisting it in any way whatsoever. Pretty cool.

Receiving Such Acceptance

What’s surprising to me about this is that once someone gives us such deep permission to experience ourselves in this way, there’s an automatic and spontaneous stopping of the mind. The mind just goes “uhhhhh…”

Try it with yourself on any of your complaints about life and see what happens.

In my experience, when I grant myself full permission to suffer, that suffering just dissolves on its own, though my ego may then try and toss up more problems that it wants to suffer about, but this process doesn’t last very long in the face of such acceptance. I find that I don’t have to let go of my suffering. It lets go of me!

I’d be curious to hear you guys share your experiences as well.

It’s like the suffering and complaining needs resistance to continue, and this resistance may come in the form of, “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. That’s terrible. You’re right, that shouldn’t have happened. Life isn’t fair. Something else should have happened to you. The way life is isn’t acceptable.”

There definitely seems like there’s a difference between acceptance in the form of “Yes your suffering is justified” and a deeper version of acceptance in the form of “Yes you have every right to believe and experience whatever you so choose. Life is the way it is, and your perspective is an inseparable part of what is, and I have no argument with what is.”

Sessions with Matt

For those of you who also resonate with Matt, his teachings, and his way of being in the world, if you would like some guidance in moving beyond some of your unconscious blocks and misconceptions, I would definitely recommend considering scheduling a personal healing session with Matt. If you click on that link, you’ll see that his sessions are very much applicable to those of us who have been walking the spiritual pathway for a while and are getting stuck on some of the deeper and more subtle aspects of it. It can be very helpful to work with someone who’s been where we are and can offer us the insights that we are having trouble seeing. Being helped is a wonderful thing.

Whether you feel this is what your energy wants right now or not, it’s totally cool either way, and I thank you for walking the journey here with me. I hope that you, too, find all that you seek.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bEfA8mSeCY

A memory popped into mind the other day while I was out hiking: There’s this scene in a movie (The Next Karate Kid) where a monk in a monastery is slowly going for a walk, sweeping in front of him as he steps. Out of compassion for all living things, he sweeps the little critters along his path off to the side so that he doesn’t accidentally squash them with his upcoming steps.

After this memory came to mind, another duality collapsed within me: The duality of animate and inanimate objects.

There’s the idea about having compassion for all living things. The way I interpret that idea, it’s basically like recognizing the Divine in all of life, in the living aliveness.

Yet what I’m seeing is that EVERYTHING is IT. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a person, an animal, an insect, a tree, a rock, the chair, or the air. Everything is the One. All of Life is revered in all its forms, living or not.

Rather than having compassion for only all living things, what arises is having compassion for all of existence.

We begin to revere and appreciate even the air that lovingly flows in and out of our bodies, the chair that selflessly supports and cradles our bodies, the nutrient-rich soil which nourishes and provides our food, the clouds that contribute to the crucial water cycle…

Conscious?

With the collapse of animate and inanimate, this doesn’t mean that suddenly animate and inanimate objects are identically the same. Of course not. Each manifestation of the One is unique, even though it is nevertheless the One.

What we call inanimate objects don’t have a consciousness in the way that we traditionally think of consciousness. They exist, and yet they have no idea that they exist.

What we call animate objects (living beings) have a consciousness in the way we traditionally think of consciousness. They are conscious, but they may not necessarily have the capacity to, like humans, know that they are, that they exist.

Humans have this unique capacity for being conscious of consciousness, to be a vessel through which consciousness can awaken to itself.

In a way, we could say that people are more conscious than birds who are more conscious than tables.

Yet, in the same way that some people are more conscious than other people, this in no way makes anything any more or less the One.

Everything is completely and totally, equally and infinitely the One, regardless of the degree of consciousness.

The degree of consciousness in a particular manifestation of the One may certainly determine the experience of that manifestation, or even if it can have a conscious experience in the first place, sure, but that in no way alters the fact that it is an inseparable manifestation of the One, animate or inanimate, living or dead.

Everything you could possibly look at is the One, including the one looking… perhaps especially so…

All is the One. All of existence and nonexistence. All is IT.

I recently had a brief interlude with a woman who was really into feminism. She said that feminism was about equality between the two genders, yet when I inquired about why it was called feminism as opposed to something like gender equality, she got heated, pointing out that it was about women having the same rights as men. (This being equal to That. Duality.)

I left the conversation, noticing how fired up and angry she was getting, and figured I’d move the discussion here.

It’s really common for us to move from one extreme to another when trying to find a balance. It’s similar to how a pendulum needs to swing from one end to another before gradually finding balance in the middle. A totally normal process in life. Nothing bad or wrong happening here.

When it comes to finding a sense of harmony between two apparently polar opposites and uncovering the essence of harmony and balance, ultimately what we’ll need to do is to throw out the labels entirely when we look at a person.

Are you a man or a woman? Who cares?

Are you black, white, or something else? Who cares?

Are you rich or poor? Who cares?

Are you gay or straight? Who cares?

Are you asleep or enlightened? Who cares?

Are you my enemy or my friend? Who cares?

Are you my significant other or a beggar on the street? Who cares?

When you look at a ladybug, do you care if it has 10 spots on its back or 8? Does this change how you feel about the ladybug? Probably not… For one reason or another, we buy into an arbitrary set of rules that say that this trait makes this person more worthy than that trait on that person. Baloney!

Unconditional Love doesn’t look at ANY of that. In fact, these differences are utterly irrelevant!

The essence of that which you are is what it is regardless of any superficial appearances. The Love that flows unconditionally is just that: unconditional. It doesn’t flow in spite of XYZ, as if it tolerates something it doesn’t like and yet puts up with it anyways, no no. It just doesn’t even consider XYZ at ALL.

By analogy, the sun doesn’t care if you are a good person or a bad person, black or white, man or woman. It shines on everyone equally because that’s who it is.

Regardless of if H2O takes the form of water, ice, or steam, it’s all still H2O. It’s about looking beyond appearances, into the sameness beyond name and form.

This isn’t to say that we should stop differentiating between this and that, man and woman, black and white, and somehow lose the ability to tell the difference. What IS being pointed to is to not let any mental judgments come between the sense of Oneness and Love that is everpresent in this moment.

This Unity we can feel with “others” arises prior to any mental sense of differentiation, prior to any mental judgment or ranking system.

You are loved. You are worthy. You are acceptable. You are forgiven. You are beautiful. Just the way you are. Whether you change anything or change nothing at all, your inherent sense of worth will remain just the same.

By virtue of that which you are: a nameless expression of All That Is, you are inherently worthy of all the freedom, joy, love, and appreciation.

In the end, it’s not about women’s rights, gay rights, animal rights, human rights, or any of that, for in focusing on “the rights of this subgroup,” you are automatically creating a sense of separateness, even if “this subgroup over here” is ideally meant to be equal in whatever way to “that subgroup over there.” In practice, this rarely happens…

Returning home to a place of Oneness ultimately leads us to an end of all division and separateness within, even though differentiation may still be expressed without. Externally, Oneness does not imply sameness.

We are ALL ultimately on the same team here. In fact, there is no team. There is just this, here and now. There is only this. This is it. What we call you and I are not separate. We are not two.

If you’re going to be an activist standing up for the rights of someone or something, stand up for the rights of everyone. Stand for the rights of universal peace and acceptance. Stand for unconditional love for the one and the all.

It’s not about this group or that group, but all groups and no groups. It’s about that which is beyond grouping.

It’s about the letting go of dualistic separation and really, truly, reconnecting back to the inherent sense of Oneness that never actually left and is always here.

Raise two fingers in peace, one finger in unity, open your hand as emptiness, and stand tall as All That Is.

Love. <3

I recently found out (this time through facebook status updates since I don’t watch the news) that California voted to uphold Proposition 8, banning gay marriages.

It’s a pretty hot topic, with lots of polarized debate, and it’s not something that I normally talk about since politics just flat out doesn’t interest me.

That said, this whole situation is like a thermometer. It’s simply showing us the level of consciousness of the collective at the time of the vote, as well as allowing people to see who they’re choosing to be in relationship to it, just like everything else in life.

The collective hasn’t shifted totally to unconditional allowance in one fell swoop, but it is shifting, piece by piece.

It used to be that a decision such as allowing gay marriage was completely unthinkable. The fact that it’s even up for discussion is already a wonderful step in the direction of equality. No we’re not there yet, but the momentum is still flowing in that direction, as it has been for quite some time...

It’s like the civil rights movement with black people. Racial equality didn’t happen all at once overnight, but as a process of evolution, step by step.

Recognizing and appreciating the shift in the direction of equality, and standing for equality and unconditional acceptance ourselves, we can choose to accept those who don’t accept full equality yet, seeing them as equal in value to us.

Those with another perspective are simply unique facets of life expressing another aspect of itself. Everything is the One in expression. Other people may certainly have different beliefs, different programming, and a different upbringing, but that in no way invalidates them as beings worthy of love and acceptance.

This situation gives us the opportunity to be the change we wish to see in the world.

No matter what decisions people make, how they vote, or who they choose to be, we can accept them fully as they are.

The Buddha was sitting under a tree talking to his disciples when a man came and spit on his face. He wiped it off, and he asked the man, “What next? What do you want to say next?” The man was a little puzzled because he himself never expected that when you spit on somebody’s face, he will ask, “What next?” He had no such experience in his past. He had insulted people and they had become angry and they had reacted. Or if they were cowards and weaklings, they had smiled, trying to bribe the man. But Buddha was like neither, he was not angry nor in any way offended, nor in any way cowardly. But just matter-of-factly he said, “What next?” There was no reaction on his part.

Buddha’s disciples became angry, they reacted. His closest disciple, Ananda, said, “This is too much, and we cannot tolerate it. He has to be punished for it. Otherwise everybody will start doing things like this.”

Buddha said, “You keep silent. He has not offended me, but you are offending me. He is new, a stranger. He must have heard from people something about me, that this man is an atheist, a dangerous man who is throwing people off their track, a revolutionary, a corrupter. And he may have formed some idea, a notion of me. He has not spit on me, he has spit on his notion. He has spit on his idea of me because he does not know me at all, so how can he spit on me?

“If you think on it deeply,” Buddha said, “he has spit on his own mind. I am not part of it, and I can see that this poor man must have something else to say because this is a way of saying something. Spitting is a way of saying something. There are moments when you feel that language is impotent: in deep love, in intense anger, in hate, in prayer. There are intense moments when language is impotent. Then you have to do something. When you are angry, intensely angry, you hit the person, you spit on him, you are saying something. I can understand him. He must have something more to say, that’s why I’m asking, “What next?”

The man was even more puzzled! And Buddha said to his disciples, “I am more offended by you because you know me, and you have lived for years with me, and still you react.”

Puzzled, confused, the man returned home. He could not sleep the whole night. When you see a Buddha, it is difficult, impossible to sleep again the way you used to sleep before. Again and again he was haunted by the experience. He could not explain it to himself, what had happened. He was trembling all over and perspiring. He had never come across such a man; he shattered his whole mind and his whole pattern, his whole past.

The next morning he was back there. He threw himself at Buddha’s feet. Buddha asked him again, “What next? This, too, is a way of saying something that cannot be said in language. When you come and touch my feet, you are saying something that cannot be said ordinarily, for which all words are a little narrow; it cannot be contained in them.” Buddha said, “Look, Ananda, this man is again here, he is saying something. This man is a man of deep emotions.”

The man looked at Buddha and said, “Forgive me for what I did yesterday.”

Buddha said, “Forgive? But I am not the same man to whom you did it. The Ganges goes on flowing, it is never the same Ganges again. Every man is a river. The man you spit upon is no longer here. I look just like him, but I am not the same, much has happened in these twenty-four hours! The river has flowed so much. So I cannot forgive you because I have no grudge against you.”

“And you also are new. I can see you are not the same man who came yesterday because that man was angry and he spit, whereas you are bowing at my feet, touching my feet. How can you be the same man? You are not the same man, so let us forget about it. Those two people, the man who spit and the man on whom he spit, both are no more. Come closer. Let us talk of something else.”

Oregon Autumn by Marc Adamus

Most of us have qualities about ourselves that society would judge as less than “ideal”… whatever that is. Maybe we’re not really really ridiculously good looking, maybe we’re overweight, maybe we’re gay, maybe we’ve got ADD, maybe we’re not the smartest cookie in the batch… whatever. Everyone’s got something..

The thing is though, in this lifetime, you’re not meant to be anything other than who and what you really are. You’re here to BE YOURSELF, the unique expression of the infinite you.

You don’t have to box yourself in to some arbitrary idealized standard in order to be lovable, acceptable, and worthy. Nope!

Looking At Our Bad Side

Whatever energy you find within yourself, whether “good” or “bad,” it’s there for a reason. It was created by your energy. There are no accidents and no mistakes. It’s not random.

Whether that “unacceptable” energy is something to be healed and transformed or it’s meant to be something we experience throughout the whole of our lives, whatever role that energy is here to teach us about ourselves, it is what it is and so it’s up to us to accept that energy and allow it to be, without resistance.

If that energy is a block that’s meant to be dissolved, it will be through non-resistance. If it’s something that’s meant to be expressed and experienced in this lifetime, then we’ll allow ourselves to express it and experience it fully without judgment, guilt, or condemnation.

We can allow the energy to do what it needs to do. It’s got its own intelligence. You are that intelligence. It’s not separate from you. You know what to do.

Accepting Ourselves Now

Right now, we simply are the way we are. We may certainly be different later on, yet ironically it’s through full and total acceptance of who we are now that we find ourselves automatically rising up to the healthiest and most loving and natural state possible.

Paradox!

It is by accepting the here and now that we afford ourselves the highest likelihood of transforming what is here and now into something else.

But I Don’t Want More of It!

There’s this fear that if we accept what’s here, the universe will be like, “Oh, you like this? Okay. We’ll give you more of the same then.” and so things won’t change and we’ll just keep getting more of the same.

It turns out… that’s not the case! What you resist persists and what you look at disappears. In your own experience, has this been the case?

Being Yourself, Regardless of Others’ Judgments

When you’re willing to be yourself regardless of what others think, when you’re willing to be the unique expression of All That Is that you were born to be, whether your talents are absoulutely horrendous, or absoulutely amazing, the willingness and freedom to be yourself is what is really inspirational.

(Fun note: I “accidentally” typed absoulutely instead of absolutely. It’s gonna stay that way for now.)

Tools to Help Accept Yourself Fully As You Are

There are some tools and techniques that we can use to help us accept ourselves to ever-increasing degrees.

Two tools that I’d highly recommend are EFT and The Sedona Method.

There are many more tools, and even things that don’t involve tools or strategies. When it comes to self-acceptance, what have you guys found valuable?

I’m going to tell you a story. It’s a true story about a woman who once attended my workshops, and is on a spiritual path like all of you. This woman was walking alone in Central Park in New York City at night. A man jumped out from behind the bushes, put a gun to her head, and started raping her. She looked deeply into this man’s eyes, and she could see he was overcome with fear and incredible pain. She began gently stroking his face. “It’s ok,” she said “It’s ok. It’s ok. I love you.” The man stopped immediately and broke into tears. “No one has ever told me they loved me,” he said. “Ever. Not even my parents.” This woman’s compassion touched this man so deeply that it changed his whole life. “This park is dangerous,” he said. “I’ll walk with you and keep you safe.

- David Deida

Wow…

Imagine a person that rooted in Love that even something as intense as being raped can’t shake them from their core of being.

Unconditional Love. Yeah baby!

Do you think you could respond in this way in the heat of the moment? Can you think of another way to respond that is also rooted in Love?

Here’s a great technique for quickly opening your heart chakra. It is especially useful in times where you’re feeling a bit low or not as compassionate as you know you could be.

Along with an open heart chakra comes the energies of acceptance, compassion, and unconditional love. Not to mention, it feels fantastic!

There are a number of excellent heart chakra meditations and visualization techniques to help you open your heart chakra, but today we’re going to focus on one technique to help you open it on the spot.

This technique is sometimes called “The Thymus Thump” because it activates the thymus inside your chest. Metaphysically speaking, you’re activating your heart chakra.

Here’s how you do it. Simultaneously,

• Smile
• Think about someone you love
• Make a fist with your hand
• Thump on the center of your chest in 3 sets of 3 while saying, “ha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha”

That’s it!

With this one simple technique, your chakra will start to open and you’ll immediately start to feel more loving and open with the world.

One cool thing I like to do is after the 9 thumps, keep thumping until I completely bust out laughing. (This usually only takes a few more thumps.) Spontaneous genuine outbursts of laughter for no reason at all is a great sign of an open heart. It arises simply from feeling good.