Watch this video in HD. (Recommended)

Unfathomable Silence

You may have noticed that there haven’t been any posts here recently. A few days ago I returned from a 30-day solo camping trip into the forest. (That’s where the photos and videos shot in the video above came from.) After the initial 6-day trip where a lot of internal things arose but didn’t fully complete, it was time to dive in and see what would happen when I go full out…

You know the stories about Jesus going into the desert for 40 days or Buddha meditating under the Bodhi tree for I think 7 week or so? As the stories go, Jesus was met by the devil who tried to lead him into temptation and the Buddha met Mara who similarly threw all these demons (ego stuff) at him but the Buddha wouldn’t follow any of that and continued to sit in silence. Both of these experiences are central to their awakenings. As the saying goes, be still and know.

Having heard these stories, I certainly had high expectations for my 30-day outing into the forest. “Let’s go face my inner demons and get totally enlightened too! Yeah!!”

The Trip

What actually happened, looking back in retrospect? Well while I literally have no desire to get into the details of the experiences, the shifts, the experiences, the realizations, the transformations, and yada yada yada the way I used to, what I do have some interest in saying is that it was perhaps one of the most internally catastrophic periods in my life I’ve ever experienced. One of the many things that was unexpectedly destroyed, much to my surprise actually, was my interest in continually talking about, thinking about, teaching about, or in any way making spirituality a central aspect of my life. The realizations, the search, the even apparent progress… who cares?!?

It’s like, when you learn how to walk, just walk! There’s no need to keep talking about how you put one foot in front of the other. You just walk… When you stop spending so much time talking about walking and you may just discover that you can walk and chew gum at the same time. So much energy freed up for other things in life! For life to be as it IS, as it naturally wants to arise, without us trying to turn it into what we think it should be.

To be perfectly honest, I just don’t care about yakking about all this stuff anymore. If I never hear another word about enlightenment, awakening, non-duality, oneness, the law of attraction, metaphysics, or any of this stuff, it would literally make no difference. At the same time, having been back in mankind’s civilized world for a few days now, I’ve noticed that whenever the topics do arise in conversation, it’s just a natural part of the flow, and when it’s done, it’s done.

There’s nothing to say, nothing to do. You just BE who you are, naturally, and that’s the whole point. Be yourself… and let’s get on with living life!

Living the Outdoor Life

At this point my intuition, excitement, and passion are all guiding me more and more towards spending more time being outdoors and leading a simple life. Just LIVE it. It’s as simple as that. Just BE.

As such, this may be my last post on this blog. This may be the start of a new approach to this blog. To be perfectly honest, I literally have no idea if I’ll ever have another urge to write anything here again, and either way is just as fine.

Because of this, I’m posting this post to bring a sense of closure to what once was, to this site’s former existence.

The forums I’m going to keep open because intuitively it feels right for whatever reason, but I don’t know what will become of this blog from here on out.

My travel photoblog I will remain active on and you can catch me there. From Georgia to Colorado to California, I am going to be headed up to Alaska next. Woohoo!!

(and before you ask, yes I’ve seen the movie Into the Wild (great movie by the way), and yes the irony of me also being an outdoorsy guy traveling solo from Georgia to Alaska on a sort of epic adventure hasn’t escaped me either.. but no, I’m not copying him. haha.)

In any event, I want to thank you all for being here and experiencing this journey with me as you have. It’s been a fun ride and I’m so grateful that you are all here living your version of it as well.

Peace!

-Ariel

Have you ever heard of the term “monkey mind?” It’s basically when your mind is running amok and your thoughts are going crazy. When that happens, what to do? What to do?

Well there’s two schools of thought (no pun intended) that we can discuss:

1) Quiet your mind

2) Direct your mind deliberately towards better feeling thoughts

Both techniques are designed to help you release resistance, experience your true self, and express your natural radiance as you live your life from moment to moment.

That said, there are some key differences such as the nature of free will, as we will explore some of these differences below:

Quieting the Mind

In this camp you’ve got teachers like Ramana (who I’ve quoted below), Mooji, and Gangaji who all come from the same lineage in Advaita. (Ramana taught Papaji who taught both Mooji and Gangaji.) The “goal” in this tradition is realization of the Self and the discovery of freedom in the recognition of your true nature as nonconceptual awareness that always is. Awareness and the Self are emphasized over thought.

He who gives himself up to the Self that is God is the most excellent devotee. Giving one’s self up to God means remaining constantly in the Self without giving room for the rise of any thoughts other than that of the Self. Whatever burdens are thrown on God, He bears them. Since the supreme power of God makes all things move, why should we, without submitting ourselves to it, constantly worry ourselves with thoughts as to what should be done and how, and what should not be done and how not? We know that the train carries all loads, so after getting on it why should we carry our small luggage on our head to our discomfort, instead of putting it down in the train and feeling at ease?

-Ramana Maharshi

This is basically the ultimate “Let go and let God” outlook and even the surrendering of one’s free will with the understanding that Creation is its own independent entity which we are to surrender to. In this tradition, it is taught that free will is actually an illusion. “What to do and how to live your life” is not directly taught in specifics. Instead you are given suggestions and pointers to look within and out of that you’ll find that decisions and actions will arise naturally and spontaneously, as if you are being lived rather than deliberately choosing what to do. “It is not I but the Father with me who does these works.”

Reaching for Better Feeling Thoughts

In this camp you’ve got your self-improvement people and your Law of Attraction people. To summarize this perspective, I’d like to share with you the following wonderful video by Abraham-Hicks.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJlOZNtarEc

Questioner: I want to stop the monkey mind. Help me stop my monkey mind.

Abe: We don’t want to stop your monkey mind. We just want to help you train your monkey mind because thoughts that are going with the flow are ultimately more satisfying than no thought.

But think about what meditation is. Meditation is a releasing of thought and in the releasing of that resistance there’s this natural turning and going with the flow. That’s the advantage.

What we always say about the subject of meditation is we would rather see you in appreciation because in appreciation your mind is active and aligned and that’s a fuller use of the creative you than having a quieted mind which is offering no resistance, but we would encourage if your mind is scattered and it is taking you in opposition then of course you’d want to quiet it, but if your mind is active and it is moving you in the direction of the call of Source then of course you’re wanting to encourage that.

“I’m going to direct my mind and if I can’t direct it the way I want to, if I can’t easily direct my mind into a really good feeling place, then I’ll quiet it instead.” That’s the way we would use meditation.

Those who would say, “I’m going to meditate for many hours in a day. I’m gonna withdraw,” are those who have decided not to direct their mind, really. You’re a creator. You didn’t come forth to be on pause. You are a creator, but pause is better than moving upstream… so how ’bout this? “I’m moving upstream, I pause, turn my boat, and then I focus on things I want.” That would be a good application of meditation.

The main focus here is to focus your attention solely upon things that you want, things that feel good. Rather than deliberately focusing within back towards awareness, awareness is deliberated focused out into the world and inner being is deliberately allowed to actively flow into the world. Basically you go out and live your life in joy.

Emotions are not a mysterious problem that simply need to be surrendered to, but with the conscious understanding of one’s emotional guidance system and that emotions are simply an indicator telling you how in alignment with Source energy (or the truth of your being) your thoughts are, you can deliberately align your thoughts with Source and thus create a better life for yourself.

Rather than recognizing that all stories are untrue, made-up, and thus dismissing them as illusion, one decides to actively use the mind as a tool by telling better stories and better stories and better stories, evolving and strengthening this character running around on the planet. For example, personal development blogger Steve Pavlina recently posted an article on How to Build a Stronger Ego which (for people who are taught that the ideal state is egolessness) contains a number of surprisingly excellent points.

But remember, when it comes to manifestation, living the life of your dreams, and choosing better feeling thoughts, it’s not about “getting there” that is the point. The manifestation itself is not actually the point. It’s about enjoying the process itself NOW by aligning yourself to the energy of Source that is You through the deliberate focusing upon what you want and the resultant flowing of Source energy through you. THAT is the real point, to experience that feeling of creative flow, that enthusiasm and joy and zest for life. The manifestational goal is just the bait to get you moving. As is often said, life is about the journey, not the destination. The energy of the Absolute is allowed to flow into the world of the relative and the two operate in harmony together.

Relationship with Desire

You can’t permanently quench your ego’s continuous hunger for more. Every time you get what you want, you’ll find you’ve now arrived at a new place which creates a new asking and a new desire for yet even more.

In the “quiet your mind” camp, this is generally seen as a problem to overcome and part of the cause of suffering and therefore the spiritual path involves finding the eternal presence within that’s innately satisfied by its very nature for it already IS everything, infinitely everything, and thus doesn’t require that you obtain more in order to feel good, including any particular experience or state of being. When you don’t believe your thoughts at all in the first place, what then when it comes to choosing better feeling thoughts?

In the “reach for better feeling thoughts” camp, that hunger for more is seen as a good thing for it is what continues the eternal drive for creative expansion. It is how we actively and deliberately take advantage of our innate creative powers. There is no end to infinity and given that we are infinite beings, this desire calls us to experience more and more and more of ourselves.

Both perspectives acknowledge that it’s not about the getting of the thing that leads to happiness. Both stress the utmost importance of inner being. It seems the main difference is one’s relationship to desire and how desire is seen… as a beneficial thing to pursue or not.

What Do You Choose

Happiness via silent awareness or happiness via aligned thought?

I’m not here to set it up as an either/or thing by any means as I’ve found tremendous value in both. In fact, it even seems that there can be a happy marriage between the two.

What’s your take on the matter from your own life experience? What have you found thus far to be the most effective way for you of living your life in this world?

Consciousness. Awareness. I used to think this was synonymous with the ‘I Am’, but now it looks like they’re actually two distinctly unique things.

Nisargadatta Maharaj has a text titled Prior to Consciousness (you can find some quotes from it here). I remember reading over some of the quotes some time ago and noticing how much of it went right over my head. “Prior to Consciousness?” Can anything really exist apart from consciousness? (If a tree falls in a forest and there’s no one around to hear it, does it still make a sound?) What kind of reality is existence without consciousness? Is Nisargadatta arguing semantics here or is he rockin’ out some ninja-level mojo here?

It turns out life decided to set up a really powerful experience to help me understand what he meant…

Turning Off in Meditation

The other day I had this really strong urge to go meditate. As I sat down on my bed and leaned up against the wall, I consciously told myself that I wasn’t going to try and accomplish, create, or manifest anything in this time allotted. Should I need to receive or experience something I’d be open to it, but there wasn’t a demand for even that. It was just a decision to BE, to be in a state of full surrender.

Quickly I began dropping down into a deep meditative state and within maybe 2-3 minutes or so, I could feel myself starting to expand beyond the limits of my physical body. Basically the beginnings of an OBE (out of body experience). The thought crossed my mind as to whether or not I should ground myself and hold this energy back down into the physical, but I let that go and allowed my energy to do what it would.

The next thing I know I come to, still sitting upright in my bed. I take a few breaths and then open my eyes and look over at the clock. An entire HOUR had passed. In that time I had basically shut down and turned off. There was no conscious experience of anything during that hour, no awareness of self in that time, no thoughts, and no memory of what happened at all.

I know I didn’t just fall asleep. For months I would get sleepy towards the end of a meditation and I’d stop and take a nap. (To be honest, I think it was my ego trying to get out of meditation and making my body tired to get me to quit, heh.) Because that’s happened SO many times, I know exactly what it’s like to get tired and want to fall asleep when meditating and this definitely wasn’t that. I was still sitting upright. Not even my head had slumped over. It was literally as if my entire sense of self had been turned off and my body was frozen in time.

If this is what the experience of death is like (annihilation of self), then death is really nothing to worry about. In nonexistence, there’s no one there to experience death, much less have a problem with it. When you come back after the experience, there’s nothing there to remember. Going through this experience really helped alleviate my fear of death to some degree.

I noticed it hasn’t wiped out my fear of death altogether yet as a few days later during meditation, I could feel the life force literally leaving my body altogether, as if it was being ripped out of my chest, and there was still attachment to keeping *my life force energy* in *my body* for separating them would mean death of self. Resistance to the experience. I’d consciously surrender more and more trying to release the resistance totally, but then the phone rang and pulled me out of my meditation. heh…

This is very different from the conscious experience of nothingness, of the recognition of the no thing that manifests as everything. That’s been experienced before here too and this most definitely was NOT that. In that there is conscious awareness. In this there is not.

Knowing that I didn’t simply cease to exist for a little while and then spontaneously come back into existence, it became clear that there is a difference between consciousness and the ‘I Am.’ I Am is eternal, but the experience of and memory of conscious awareness of the I Am is apparently not. One can exist without conscious awareness of self. It’s similar to how you continue to exist even when in a state of deep sleep between what we call the waking state and the dream state. In that gap there is no reality being experienced (physical reality, the dream world, or otherwise), nor is there a sense of consciousness that is conscious of anything, much less itself. It’s quite literally as if someone flicks the light switch off on you and then later flicks it back on. It’s one thing to have it happen when you’re asleep or get knocked out. That’s normal. This was different…

What’s Going On?

So I’ve always had an association in my mind between consciousness, existence, life, being, and the I Am. Many names for God, right?

If you were to ask me what happened, I don’t really know, but it’s my feeling that there was an experience on some higher than conscious level. Do you remember what happened prior to your birth? Probably not, and yet there were many experiences to be had there disconnected from this physical incarnation. I’ve read that when we go to sleep and go into that state of offness, our soul often leaves our body again and goes off into other dimensions and astral realms and whatnot, so perhaps this was similar.

Reaching out to friends in inquiry about this experience, I’m finding that a number of us have been walking along similar points in the journey for quite some time now. For example, CaterpillarWoman from our forums just wrote a post about That Which is Beyond Consciousness. It’s almost like a flock of birds where we’re all moving independently together. I’ve even found myself going through the same experiences and using the same words and examples as people I don’t even talk to. It’s pretty wild to see this happening. Life is so fricken’ cool…

Anyways, with respect to this experience I’ve come across a number of things that my friends have shared with me:

Developing One’s Abilities as a Conduit

A friend of mine named Kathy who I met recently and was guided to ask about this experience shared that she’s had pretty much the same experience in meditation as me. Sweet! Good to hear! Here is some of what she had to say on the topic, shared with you guys with her permission:

Practitioners of meditation, yoga and healing (or in my case Shamanic) breathing techniques are capable of inducing themselves into a state of trance that sets them up for out of body experiences.

The reason you have no memory is because your body wasn’t along for the ride – it was a soul experience – which means that your higher self is capable of sharing information with your about where you went and what happened.

“Trance can be both voluntary and involuntary, but in both the effect is the same – disassociation of the soul from the body, and temporary detachment from everything related to body. It is neither the state of wakefulness nor that of the sleep. It is an intermediate state of being.”

Visionaries, prophets and psychics all are capable of mastering this state of being. So, if I had to “guess” I’d say that you’re being prepped/initiated for the next step of what will be asked of you on your life path. You’re being shown a portal that’s open to you for your futher development…and how cool is that?!

The trance state is what’s being developed – yes OBE is a part of it in that it’s why you feel you’ve turned off – but the skill of going into a deep trance state at will is what’s being developed – it’s something Edgar Cayce mastered, as an example. You’re further developing your skills as a conduit ;-)

Woohoo!!! Hearing this is SUPER exciting to me. You see, I’ve been meeting SO many channels over the past year or so and am having a great time learning about what channeling is all about and exploring the similarities and differences between channeling styles, so much so that I recently put out a youtube video on the subject. Just seeing it from an outsider’s perspective and watching documentaries on channeling like Tuning In, as fun as that is, I wanna play too! So I’ve intentionally developing my intuition and listening skills, and even going through Bashar’s workshop again called The Art of Channeling (available on youtube) where they explain all about channeling and then even teach you how to become a channel.

The past few days since this experience, I’ve been feeling strong pulls to continue meditating and I’ve noticed that when I do, I drop down into a really deep meditative state really quickly. This shift is something very new for me and so I’m really following it to see what develops.

The State of Nothingness

Next I’d like to share with you a dialog that was brought forth a few months ago in response to a question I had for my friend Marie. She took my question and asked God about it. The following is her answer, shared here with you with her permission:

Dear God. My friend asked me this question:

“When we get hit on our head and lose consciousness, our whole reality as we know it ceases to exist. We no longer experience it. Other people can see our bodies, but we see nothing. I don’t think we actually cease to exist in those moments. Is there actually a conscious experience then and our physical memory is simply disabled in those moments or what?”

The state of nothingness is a state of intense transformation, Marie. This is a state which your energy experiences right before it takes a human form and shortly after the death of the physical body. Also, this very state may be experienced by embodied being at the moments of major transformations.

I agree: often this state feels like death. No wonder people don’t have a sense of body or memory in this state… Why do I have to experience death while alive?

In order to become aware of yourself as all that is, many people first need to realize themselves beyond their body and mind. In other words, they need to break thorough that wall which separates life and death. The state of nothingness is that train that takes you through the tunnel of unconsciousness to the “other side” of awareness. It is that bridge that allows you to experience existence and nonexistence simultaneously.

Sometimes these ‘trips’ happen spontaneously. Why is that?

Nothing happens spontaneously, my dear: when you are consciously or unconsciously ready to know more of yourself, your energy creates an experience of entering that train.

Does everybody have to experience this ‘train’ in order to become you?

Yes, but not in every lifetime. For instance, someone who experienced this state this life time and evolved through it to the point when the train is no longer needed will incarnate in his next lifetime with an awareness of himself as all that is.

So, the purpose of that train is to take one from the world of relative to the world of absolute?

True. Except for these two are not separate worlds, even though it may appear that way. The mastery though, is to complete the circle, not getting stuck in any of its fragments. True awakening starts with the awareness of your body and mind as limited reality; continues with the awareness of self beyond the body and the mind, and ends with an awareness of the body and the mind as unlimited reality.

So, one doesn’t have to take these trips to ‘the other side’ of awareness his entire life?

Not at all. The purpose of taking any trip is to arrive to your destination. If you can remember that your destination is not the train itself and not the places you visit, but your own self, the experience of being on the train will eventually disappear.

Many people don’t know how to act on that train. Can you give advice?

Get your mind out of the way.

That’s it?

That’s it. If you can resist the temptation to analyze the train and the landscape, but simply allow the train to take you through transformation, you will merge with the absolute effortlessly.

This makes so much sense. You said that my entire being is going through transformation in this state. Does it include my mind?

Of course it does. This is why thinking in this state is nearly impossible.

So, it’s like a surgery with Divine anesthesia.

Great analogy.

Well, now I can see why “waking up” in the middle of the “procedure” can be so frustrating… My last question is: Why when one is in this state others perceive him as a human being but he doesn’t perceive himself this way?

Others perceive you as a human being, because you never quit being one. It is just that in the beginning of your transformation your mind doesn’t have the capacity to perceive yourself as more than one thing. So, it perceives you either as a human being with a body and thoughts or as a silent awareness with no body and thoughts. Eventually your mind transforms so much, that it develops capacity to be aware of all aspects of your being simultaneously. That is when you no longer need the train to bridge between ‘two’ worlds, but you realize yourself as an embodiment (separateness) of the absolute (oneness).

Thank you.

and so with the wonderfully helpful suggestion to get the mind out of the way and continue focusing on myself (as usual), I’m going to wrap up this post and go back to enjoying the journey and following the guidance of my energy and intuition. It’s creating such a wonderful transformational process here and I am very grateful to be along for the ride.

mk guys and gals, here’s a homework assignment for you. I’d like for you guys to do this and then report back in with your results in the forum comments.

Meditate without trying to accomplish anything.

Set aside some time to just go sit and be.

Don’t try to do a good job meditating, don’t try to be super still, don’t try to get enlightened, don’t control your breathing, don’t try to maintain a proper posture, don’t worry about what to do, don’t try to be successful, don’t try to experience deeper states of peace, don’t try to raise your level of consciousness, don’t try to destress, don’t try to make anything happen, don’t try to quiet your mind, don’t have any expectations for any results whatsoever… literally nothing, ya dig?

See what happens and share with us what you find.

Whether nothing happens at all, whether your have some super spectacular grand revelation, whether you decide instead to go pick your nose, or whether you become the next living Buddha, whatever. There’s no such thing as a wrong answer or a failed attempt. How can there be if there’s no goal?

No expectations. No right or wrong.

Just stop.

and Be.

Question:

Dear Ariel,

I have attempted meditation in the past, but for one reason or another was inconsistent in my practice. Recently, I have begun my attempts again with meditation, and the spiritual enlightenment process- but this time I am very serious about it. I am ready to embark on my spiritual journey, and I am in it for the long haul. Strangely enough though, the past week or so I have become even more stressed, which seems to be counter intuitive to what this whole process is about. When I try to meditate I just become frustrated, and when I think about it I feel stressed and fearful. I know that it is directly due to my ego, and the insecurity that initially comes with one stepping outside of their comfort zone. I read your entry about forgetting all truths, and I think that that is one of my biggest problems. I read about “all of this stuff” and subconsciously develop these unrealistic expectations. I am just having so much trouble letting my mind go blank, is it like this for everyone in the beginning? If you could give me some insight, and maybe some advice/tips I would appreciate it so much. I randomly came across your website, but I am very grateful I did. You have really helped me with all of your posts.

Thanks,

J.

My Response:

Hey there J. Awesome questions. What you’re asking about are some super common things that arise so don’t worry, nothing’s gone wrong. You’re on the right track.

Frustration and Stress in Meditation

I am ready to embark on my spiritual journey, and I am in it for the long haul. Strangely enough though, the past week or so I have become even more stressed, which seems to be counter intuitive to what this whole process is about. When I try to meditate I just become frustrated, and when I think about it I feel stressed and fearful. I know that it is directly due to my ego, and the insecurity that initially comes with one stepping outside of their comfort zone.

Yeah, we would hope that when we go into meditation, we’d immediately go into a state of incredible peace and bliss. It turns out though, that there’s a little bit more of a process to it than that, which is exactly what you’re seeing.

It’s very common to begin experiencing emotional roller coasters as you begin meditating. Basically what happens is that when you start looking at that stuff inside that you’ve been avoiding in the past for whatever reason, it comes right up. It’s like the ego knows your buttons and exactly how to push ‘em to get you to quit seeing it for what it is.

As you said, it’s part of stepping outside of your comfort zone. If you can just allow yourself to feel whatever feelings arise in the moment, that’s all that’s necessary. The practice of meditation becomes nothing more than an openness and allowance to experience anything that arises without identification with it.

The more you can surrender to it, the more quickly it will pass.

Expectations

I read about “all of this stuff” and subconsciously develop these unrealistic expectations.

Yeah, even the expectations are products of the mind, ideas that suggest that you should be experiencing something other than what you’re experiencing now. The future should be somehow better or different than what is now. This is just what minds do.

Minds can do amazing things, like even taking spiritual teachings and turning them into more mental gymnastics. Lots of things arise, like these subconscious expectations, that can be consciously let go of once they are recognized for what they are: just more mind stuff.

We continue to go deeper and deeper, layer by layer.

Quieting the Mind

I am just having so much trouble letting my mind go blank, is it like this for everyone in the beginning?

Probably one of THE most common things people experience on the spiritual journey. It’s not just you.

The way you say the words “letting my mind go blank,” it sounds more like the word “letting” should be the word “making.”

This is one of the backwards things. You don’t make the mind go quiet. You simply allow it to be as it is without feeding it your attention and energy. It’s a very peaceful state, nothing to do with struggling to control the mind into submission.

When you don’t invest your energy into your mind’s thoughts and take ‘em all that seriously anymore, you find your thoughts naturally start to subside ON THEIR OWN.

Instead of trying to run away from the mind, distract yourself from the mind, change the mind, control the mind, or any of that stuff, just stop the whole game and be with what is here, now.

It’s really that simple.

Sure it takes some practice and sometimes it’s easier than others. For sure. This is normal. This is part of the process. Just stop anyways.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRA-T8xPEfI

Thanks for your question!

Recently I’d posted about some repressed sadness that had been rising up to the surface within me to finally be released.

Last week I decided to simply quit spinning it around in my mind and emotional center and to simply go within and meditate. In meditation, I did a few main things:

1. Withdraw attention, energy, and interest from thought and emotion
2. Return awareness back to awareness itself
3. Surrender away all else without resistance

The key is not to try and fix ANYTHING, but to literally sit as the Self (conscious awareness itself), and allow everything else to fall away by offering it no resistance.

This may sound like it’s not accomplishing anything, as if no problems are being adequately dealt with, but believe me, this will impact you on an entirely different level…

There’s this idea that surrender means giving up, waving a white flag, and proclaiming our own weakness and sense of inability to accomplish our goals. This is NOT what is meant here. By surrender, I am simply saying to fully allow things to be the way they are and to let go of resistance. Be fully open without closing down.

After maybe 20-25 minutes of sitting in meditation, something amazing opened up and I realized a deeper part of my being, of who I truly am.

Beneath this idea of a little “me” and all the emotions and thoughts and stories it conjures up, there’s this infinitely more amazing world.

Peace

Underneath everything we experience is this infinitely deep sense of Peace. This peace extends infinitely far down into the nothingness. It is so unimaginably deep and is completely unshakable, beyond any level of peace experiencable in this world because it is truly beyond this world. It is sublime. It is the peace of God.

Love

Resting on top of peace is Love. This Love is infinitely vast and knows no bounds. It is like opening your heart WIIIIIDE open, stretching your arms open to warmly welcome the world, feeling your cheeks stretch as you smile, noticing your eyes crinkle with your natural smile… it’s this infinitely expansive capacity for unconditional love beyond all measure.

This Love is totally free to be, to express itself as it is. Underneath this energetic gusher of radiant love and divine bliss is the security, the safety, and the support of infinite peace. This love knows no fear for its roots extend down into infinite peace, a peace to which there is no opposite.

Ego

Now sitting on top of this infinitely vast ocean of love and this infinitely deep core of peace, there is the separate self and all the thoughts and emotions associated with it. It is loud and noisy and shiny and bright and attracts a lot of attention to itself like a rambunctious little toddler. In the same way that a loud crash behind you or the sharp impact of a hammer hitting your toe focuses all your attention to itself, the ego’s antics focuses your attention to itself as well. It’s like this teeny tiny swirl of energy sitting on top of this infinitely vast peace and love.

We spend so much time focusing on our separate selves, on our problems, how to fix and deal with our problems, and all this “me” stuff that we miss the vastness of the silence below that is always there.

In order to see it, we simply need to withdraw awareness from the mind and emotions and bring awareness to awareness itself while surrendering away all else. Abide in the silent witness. Be still and know.

This experience, if we were to try and visualize it, would look something like this:

Enjoy my wonderful artistic sketch!

Creation

So through surrender, we relinquish all control. We let go of all energies of resistance, of manipulation, of trying to control reality in any way whatsoever.

Instead of trying to control the river of life, we let go altogether.

What spontaneously arises within this space is the realization that you ARE Creation itself!

That’s right, you ARE the very flow of life! You ARE life itself expanding outward and rolling through itself. Instead of trying to be a separate “me” controlling the river, you become the river itself!

Your true nature is the very unfoldment of Creation, an unfoldment which happens naturally, effortlessly, synchronistically, magically, perfectly, automatically, and spontaneously.

Rather than feeling like a defeated weakling, through true surrender you come to realize your true nature as the fullness of life itself, the very Source of all of Creation and being in THAT space is… WOW…

Following Your Bliss

Abraham often talks about “following your bliss” as a way to come to know more and more of yourself, as a method of determining which thoughts to think and which actions to take in physical reality, as discussed previously.

It’s almost like when you reach beyond the separate self, you are reaching through the “me” into a completely new space, the very source of Love itself, a source which is always present and is actually who you are. You are this Source.

Following your bliss is a way for the physical you in the Manifest to connect to the non-physical you in the Unmanifest that you desire to be here in the Manifest.

The bridge which links the Manifest to the Unmanifest is Bliss. Now this experience of bliss isn’t just a cookie that we’re given to signify that we’re on the right track. No no, this bliss literally IS us!! So in essence, we are using ourselves to connect ourselves to ourselves. How cool is that!?

It is ALL us!

I’m sitting outside in the garden now looking around at all the “form” that surrounds me… plants, flowers, trees… cars, homes, bees… statues, stones, leaves…

After a relatively brief meditation session, I opened my eyes and began looking at my surroundings, simply observing without allowing the mind to hop in and insert its commentary and labels. Just looking and allowing all color, form, shape, and movement to flow into my eyes as one seamless flow of light.

Suddenly I realized what I was seeing and burst out laughing.

Underneath all form is a dance of formless energy. Nothing is solid, real, or permanent. What we call physical and tangible is simply a dance of impermanence.

The building blocks of all form is the formlessness of pure non-physical energy.

It’s like this…

Look at this picture. What do you see coming from the light? Smoke. A dance of wispy smoke. Frozen in time in this image, we could look at this smoke and say it has a distinct, definable form. It has a structure, shape, color, and size. In fact, we can keep looking at it and it doesn’t move. It must be permanent!

As we know, however, the shape of smoke is constantly subject to air currents and the flow of all of life itself. It’s constantly moving and evolving. Despite any appearances of form or structure, we know that smoke is truly formless. It has simply takes on the appearance of a particular form in every changing moment.

Every thing you see in life is just like this smoke. It is the appearance of form created by the formless.

Nothing is truly concrete or solid, despite outer appearances.

Look at a growing plant without mentalization and what you see is the dance of formlessness. It is a formless flow of energy temporarily taking the shape of a plant.

Everything in life is like smoke, just moving a little more slowly or more quickly. Some things are physically more dense so they move more slowly. The smoke from a flame is not very dense so it moves relatively quickly. A human body walks around somewhat more slowly. A stone cathedral, which is very dense, changes even more slowly.

Yet given enough time, they will all equally be reduced to dust.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

There is an inherent vulnerability in all form. When we see someone or something putting up a protective shield, be they the thorns of a plant, the anger of a person, or the walls around a castle, we recognize that these defenses are simply the result of “something” being fearful of its own dissolution and subsequently doing whatever it can to solidify its sense of permanence.

Yet what we often recognize as most beautiful in life is that which is vulnerable… the petals of a flower, the breeze over the ocean, the gracefulness of a ballerina, the body of a young woman, the fluidity of a symphony, a sleeping baby, the chirping of a bird, a siren’s song, curves.

Vulnerability is the true strength, for it is in alignment with the permanent impermanence. That which is vulnerable can never be destroyed. It can certainly change forms and evolve, expand and contract. It always will, and recognizing this fact, one may let go of trying to maintain their current state and allow their own light to shine forth from within.

This awareness comes from beyond the mind. The true strength of formless vulnerability can not be seen by trying to look for it. It’s the timelessness of all that is. It’s the gentle touch and the powerful crash. It is that which can not be named, for it is simply just something that is. It exists. You can talk about it, but you can not say what it is.

Its presence arises naturally as the mind goes quiet and stops noisily covering up that infinite vastness.

It is a peace, yet beyond the most infinite peace you can imagine. It is truly beyond all imagination, beyond your wildest dreams.

You can tap into it whenever you wish. It is always there, lovingly awaiting your conscious return.

What would life be like if we really stopped focusing so much on what we’re doing and instead started focusing only on who we’re being?

One of the central ideas behind divine energy is the nothingness, emptiness, stillness, and spaciousness.

The more you meditate and go within, the more you begin to drop extraneous unnecessary doingness. External doing such as freaking out or arguing. Internal doing like worrying or thinking. Progressively, a stillness of being flows into you and is expressed outwardly through you. As within, so without.

You represent a level of peacefulness and imperturbability that is truly beyond this world.

You become able to concentrate and focus on a certain task and accomplish it with lightness and ease, effectively and swiftly. Single-pointedness of mind allows you to laser focus all the energy that would otherwise be wasted into exactly what you’re doing.

If you choose to be loving, you then become TOTALLY loving. Your love can be explosive, expressive, & extraordinary. You radiate love with your entire being, with nothing holding you back. The focus is on being loving and that’s all you are: loving.

Typically when people feel unloved, they may try to figure out how they can feel more loved. Their mind may reason that by doing more loving things for others, they will automatically be more deserving of love and should therefore receive back all the love they crave. However, when coming from the ego/mind like this, it’s actually coming from a place of neediness and is not the way to create lasting and harmonious results.

Transcending egoic insecurities and fears are not accomplished by changing what you do, but rather by transforming who you’re being. Instead of trying to figure out what to do to feel more loved, just BE loving. Just BE truly loved. With no strings attached. Then, whatever you do will come from the feeling of being loved and the world will have no choice but to respond in kind.

Because the world is a mirror of your inner state of being, you must always change FIRST who you’re being in order to adjust the reflection you’re seeing in the world.

Our whole society is wrapped up in doingness. Being busy. Achieving the American dream. When people get older in this society, they’re considered practically worthless. Why? Because they can’t do much. They simply sit around and exist. They just be. People get depressed about it, yet this could turn into one of the most transformational opportunities of their lives if they only realized just how much they’re simply being and that all that’s necessary is to simply be who you really are. Without realizing it, they’re soooo close to creating the feeling of inner peace.

Being who you really are is the solution to more than people realize.

They’ll ask stuff like “How do I become a good manifester?” Simple. Just be a good manifester! Know that you’re awesome when it comes to creating what you want and that the universe will ALWAYS support you in experiencing whatever reality you so desire. Live this new reality Now.

You already ARE everything you want to experience. All it takes to have the experience is to know that you already are it now. I don’t mean this in some far-off metaphorical sense. I mean this LITERALLY.

Be whomever you wish to be and thus that will be your reality. Period.

Make the experience you wish to have part of you. Be the life you wish to live. Merge with it so that there is only Oneness. The experience is you.

Getting back to being vs. doing, yes, what you do is still important in life, but not in the way most people think. What your body does is a reflection of who you are and what you’re being. Again, this is where people have it backwards. They’ll do things to try and make themselves happy.

The true order is that you are happy and thus, you do things that are in alignment with your inner happiness, giving you “happy” results. What you do in life is a good measuring tape for what you’re being, the same way your emotions are a good indicator of your primary, dominant thought patterns in that moment.

Allow your body to do whatever it naturally feels guided to do and focus ONLY on who you’re being in the moment.

“I of my own self can do nothing, it is the Father within me who is doing the work.”

As you surrender away the personal self, the individual doer, you are open to allowing God to work through you, to be his hands and feet here on earth and manifest Heaven on Earth.

When the soul reaches complete mastery, it is no longer trying to DO anything in this world at all. It is simply BEING who it is and consequently allowing the higher spiritual self to work through it.

Focus ONLY on who you choose to BE in any moment in time. Whatever action feels most in alignment with that state of being, allow the body to DO exactly that.

Meditation is often talked about as a stress-reduction tool.

Let’s look at some of the benefits of meditation and see why it works the way it does.

Most people today are unconscious. This means that when a stimulus comes up, the person automatically reacts in a certain way based on their beliefs and emotional surges. This is particularly dominant when the painbody overtakes the person.

One of the main aspects of meditation is that you simply sit in silent presence and allow yourself to be aware of your mind, your body, your surroundings, and all the stimuli that is constantly competing for your attention.

There’s a bazillion things we could pay attention to at any moment, but our brain (thankfully) helps us focus our awareness down to just a few things at any point in time.

In meditation, you allow yourself to sit still and consciously choose not to react to any mental or physical stimuli such as your thoughts, things you need to do now or later, any itchy sensations, sounds and noises in your environment, and so on. All the stuff that would normally pull you in a certain direction, you allow yourself to notice those things without getting pulled away from your meditation. They start to lose their control over you because you come to realize that hey, wait a sec, I don’t HAVE to respond to this stuff.

What happens is that by doing this, you notice a gap between a stimulus and your response.

Most people operate primarily unconsciously. That is, when there’s a stimulus such as someone saying, “You’re an idiot” or, “You’re wonderful,” these statements make them automatically react a certain way.

Through meditation, you come to be conscious of the small gap between a stimulus and your response. You become aware of the possibility of actually choosing your response consciously to any circumstance instead of being controlled by every external event that is beyond your control.

Stress is basically the feeling that life is getting out of hand and we’re losing control. It’s a sense of pressure beyond normal levels which leads to anxiety, discomfort, and fear. This stress is all mental. It all exists in the mind, in one’s imagination, no matter how real or justified it feels.

When one doesn’t know how to manage this stress, it commonly grows stronger and becomes more and more amplified.

A wonderful thing about meditation is that it gives you practice in consciously choosing your response to what is instead of unconsciously reacting to what is.

There is tremendous power in this consciousness, in the sense of presence that one embodies.

Being unconscious makes you feel confusion and anxiety. This confusion clouds over your inner knowingness and makes it harder to realize solutions to life’s problems.

Being conscious and fully present brings in a sense of clarity and focus. From this place, solutions are easy to come up with. You begin to feel like an oak tree who is certainly aware of and conscious of life’s twists and turns, but you don’t get pulled every which way. You maintain your centeredness and stillness, your sense of inner peace and freedom.

Instead of being pulled away from your centeredness, you get better and better at maintaining a sense of inner peace no matter what is happening externally or in your mind.

Meditation is a wonderful practice towards helping one deal with stress, in the short term and especially over the long term. It’s a way of life, a way of being.

The ability to easily handle stress and maintain a sense of clarity and stillness while life continues to unfold all around you is but one of the many fruits of regular meditation.

Strengthen your roots and you’ll enjoy some delicious fruits.

Photo by Marc Adamus

Our minds can be a noisy chatterbox from hell. It can keep yapping away and driving us nuts. Is it possible to experience a state of mental silence, the same type of silence we can experience when sitting back in awestruck wonder of a beautiful sunrise? Can we experience the mental stillness of a cool winter morning?

When we’re feeling really stressed out and want to change it, we’re often suggested to sit down and calm our minds and think good thoughts to replace the bad ones. Have a positive outlook. Be an optimist. Look on the bright side.

This can certainly help us replace bad feeling thoughts with good feeling thoughts and change the direction of our life. Absolutely.

However, there are even higher levels of being in the world.

It is possible to experience a lasting sense of inner peace and quietness without having to escape the incessant mind by going to sleep or engaging in various distracting activities.

Is there an effective technique to experience extended periods of mental tranquility?

What does it take to experience a sense of continuous peacefulness within, regardless of what’s happening without?

In order for your mind to quiet, all you have to do, all you ever have to do is to abide, to accept without resistance.

It means to simply allow things to be as they already are.

Completely and totally.

Next time you’re feeling like an emotional wreck, instead of trying to change it or hate the fact that you’re feeling like a miserable wreck, allow yourself to completely and totally experience the experience even though that sounds like the last thing you’d want to do.

What you’ll find is that when you allow your current emotional state to be just as it is, that underneath the emotional turbulence you’ll experience a profound sense of peace, a liberating sense of freedom, and a wide spaciousness around this moment.

Any time you’re not feeling peace, it’s a sign that you’re struggling and not allowing everything be as it is.

This sounds counter-intuitive to the mind, but what you resist persists and what you look at disappears.

As soon as you start to allow things to be just as they are, you’ll start to experience the breathing room around the situation, the peace, the freedom.

What’s awesome is that this sense of peace does NOT depend on the negative emotions actually leaving you or on your external situation actually being fixed. The negative emotions and situation can still be there and still be experienced, but by allowing them to be, you’ll experience a yourself abiding in a greater context that totally allows the emotion to be and without insisting that it leaves.

The cool part is that once you let go of pushing against the negative feelings, you’ll be able to see the situation more clearly and open up to receiving and discovering solutions to your problems that you would have otherwise been too mentally clouded over to realize.

As soon as you allow what is to be as it is, whatever that thing is that was so terrible will actually point right towards your own mental and emotional freedom.

What freedom? Well why not explore the lifestyle of letting go and find out for yourself?