YATL posts and videos can be viewed freely here on this site. If you feel grateful for all that has been given and all you have received here, you are invited to give back.

Spiritual Truth is Experiential, Not a Belief System

Spiritual Truth is something to know, to experience, not something to believe in. The joy and love and peace of God can be actually experienced once you know how to access it.

Do you need a belief system to know how many heads are sticking up out of your neck? If I told you you had 18 heads sticking out of your neck, would a debate even be necessary? No.

You know you have only one physical head. You experience it. You know it. No belief system or opinion is necessary.

It’s when you lack the complete knowingness and experience that the weaker substitute of belief or opinion (which only exist in the mind, not in reality) is necessary.

Whether or not Jesus turned water into wine, or whether Adam and Eve actually existed, it’s not something we can actually experience. Thus, it’s basically a question of whether you believe in it or not. Since there’s no way of proving it one way or another, all you have are people arguing and defending their belief systems which is essentially a big house of cards. People are terrified of what will happen if their cards come tumbling down.

What are some spiritual truths that can be experienced and that really make a DIFFERENCE in your life? Read More …

The Hammer Metaphor

We’re going to be describing the ego in terms of a metaphor which will allow us to both visualize the effects of using the ego in the world, as well as understand the necessity for surrendering the ego.

The ego is simply a tool, an automatic duality-creating machine which allows us to experience every possible aspect of life.

Now the problem is not so much that the ego itself exists, but the fact that people are identified with it.

The ego has a useful purpose: to allow us to believe that illusions are a reality and thus experience both the real and the illusory. The ego is simply a tool.

It’s similar to someone using a hammer. When a nail needs to be nailed into a wall, a hammer is certainly a very useful tool. So, people find that it benefits them to use the hammer and thus they pick it up and use it to their advantage. Cool. No problem.

It’s very clear that while you’re using the hammer, the hammer is not YOU, but simply a tool that you are using with which to engage in the process of creation.

The “problem” is that most people think that they literally ARE the hammer and that there is nothing else they can be, so they continue hammering in every activity in life: while talking to others, having sex with a partner, dealing with foreign politics, resolving disagreements, even in talking to themselves!

…and then people wonder why the world is in the shape that it’s in. Read More …

The Role of a Spiritual Teacher

What is the purpose of a spiritual teacher? Is he there to save you and guide you into heaven? Is she there to share with you the truth she discovered in a book? Is he here to show you how to access the truth already inside of you? Is she here to provide a map for you to follow towards enlightenment/salvation? Is it any of these things? None of these things? Perhaps something else altogether?

Ultimately, all a spiritual teacher can really do is show you how to find the truth which is already inside you. You are God also and your soul, that part of you which is most deeply connected to God, knows anything and everything that ever was, is, or ever will be. ALL Truth is available to you, Now. You already know it. It’s simply a matter of remembering it. The task is learning what to do to access the database of infinite knowledge and wisdom.

All the “knowledge” a teacher shares with you, feel free to try it on yourself. Try it on like a new pair of jeans. If the pants fits on you and you enjoy the way they look, wonderful. Keep wearing them.

On the other hand, if they don’t feel so good, that’s cool too. Simply say, “No, thanks” and put the jeans back on the rack. Either way, the teachings are helping you decide your OWN truths.

Regardless of whether or not you agree with a teacher, because they’re helping you decide and create Who You Really Are, you can feel a sense of appreciation towards them giving you the gift of showing you who you are by holding up a mirror, just like the rest of the world.

No one is claiming to have THE Truth. They simply have their own versions of THEIR Truth which, in their own experiences, seem to be serving them quite well! … or perhaps sometimes they don’t. Either way, they’re simply sharing our own truths, as well as the natural consequences that seem to be created as a result of applying these truths.

Good spiritual teachers can hold immense power and they have a choice of how to use the power. They can either:

a) Use their power OVER others, from a place of egoic superiority and the mistaken belief that there is a “them” who has this power.

b) Use their power WITH others, to uplift all of mankind with the understanding that We Are All One.

My intention is to help uplift all of you, or more precisely, to assist those of you who are ready to uplift yourselves.

In this process, you will have to meet me halfway for I can only show you the door. You have to walk through it.

In the end, the spiritual teacher can only show you the path that they have walked. Everyone walks a unique path and there are 10,000 paths to God. It is up to the spiritual truth seeker to pick and choose the truths which resonate with them as give to them by the teacher and then implement the teachings in their own life in order to walk their path.

You Are Not Your Mind

What are you?

It’s a simple question.

Chances are, if you’re reading this article, you’re human. (To all you aliens and humanoids out there reading this article, hello! This will apply to you too!)

So, for the sake of argument, let’s say you’re a human being. If someone were to point to you, they would be pointing to your body, as if the body was you. When you see the body of your friend “Bob” approaching, you’ll probably say hello to the “body” of Bob, as if he was his body.

If Bob gets his arms and legs chopped off, is he still Bob? Indeed he is. The same applies to you. You could even get your head cut off, and you’d still be you. YOU wouldn’t disappear.

So, you must not be your body.

Ah, you must then be the mind inside the body, right? That makes more sense. Afterall, that’s where your personality lies, your thoughts, opinions, belief systems, memories… Sure your body is certainly one of a kind, but most everything important that makes you unique lies inside your mind, yes?

You know that little voice inside your head? … If you just said to yourself, “What little voice?”, THAT’S the little voice!

Go and and tell yourself to stop thinking. Do it. Stop thinking.

…

Can’t do it, can you?

The reason why is because your thoughts are NOT YOU. The thoughts automatically come and go on their own, without any conscious control, much like your breath.

And, like your breath, your mind can influence itself to try and think a certain thought, at least temporarily, but ultimately you do not have any control over your mind. Read More …

Opposites Do Not Exist

Love is all there is.

It is literally impossible for anything other than Love to exist. Yet, if Love is all you experience, you will never truly be able to appreciate it.

In the same way that your favorite food grows tiresome if you eat it consistently, it is necessary to experience the opposite of that which you enjoy in order to fully understand and appreciate that which you enjoy.

Because Love is all there is and it’s impossible to experience anything other than Love, the next best thing is to forget and create the illusion of fear. You are given the tremendous gift of being able to believe fear is real in order to fully appreciate Love.

In the absence of that which you are NOT, that which you ARE is NOT.

In this lifetime and in all your other lifetimes, you have the ability to create whatever it is you wish. You get to create fear. You get to create Love. With enough trial and error, you’ll start to come to the conclusion that Love simply feels better. It’s a more enjoyable place to be. Fear may feel good to the ego, but it’s ultimately a destructive energy. What may feel righteous or justified in the short term will never bring long term happiness.

If fear doesn’t exist, how is it that we can experience it?

Let’s take a look at several pairs of opposites. Read More …

Life Is A Meditation

Question:

Dear Ariel,

How do you meditate?

Thanks,

F.

My response:

Life itself IS meditation.

The stereotypical sitting cross-legged in a corner just a first stage. It evolves from there.

First you DO meditation. Continue to do it enough and you eventually BECOME meditative. Anything and everything you do becomes imbued with the meditative state because it’s simply a reflection of what you are.

So there’s a lot of value to “doing” meditation, but realize that it’s not an end in an of itself. That said, there are many different types of meditation including chakra meditation, kundalini meditation, watching your breath, being fully present in the Now moment, watching your mind, merging with anything such as people or animals, and so forth. In my experience, all of these techniques have proven themselves to be very valuable and effective, but a few are better suited for those who are interested in enlightenment.

Chakra meditation:

You, and your physical body, are composed of raw energy, clustered around 7 centers called chakras. The lower level chakras have to do with more survival-based concepts such as security and sexual reproduction while the upper chakras are more associated with spiritual concepts such as intuition and universal energy.

Interestingly, learning how to open these chakras provides you with a blueprint for how to run your life in a healthy manner in alignment with the universe.

Insecurities, neediness, scarcity mentality, icy heartedness, fear of others… all these fears vanish once the appropriate chakras have been opened and balanced. Opened, the chakras become a guide for how to live your life from a place of true Love and compassion.

Surrender:

Surrender is one of the most important and life-changing practices one could possibly adopt.

Surrender is a constant process of not resisting or clinging to the moment but instead, continuously turning it over to God. The attention is focused on the process of letting go and not on the content of ‘what’ is being surrendered.

The trick is not to completely turn off your ego, at least not at first, but to simply disidentify from it altogether.

In meditation, simply watch your mind think its thoughts. Do not become the thoughts and identify yourself as “I am the thoughts.” Instead, be the silent witness and watch the thoughts go by on their own.

Doing this, you operate from a state of enlightenment. You merge with the field of consciousness, becoming the awareness in which all things happen.

God is the silent witness that is aware of everything unfolding within itself.

It is both the field AND the content within the field.

So, the trick is simply to watch your mind and everything that happens in life as if it’s some autonomous play that’s happening on its own while identifying with nothing within the play, not even the parts you think you control… especially those parts.

With the practice of this meditation, your field of awareness starts to expand.

Your peripheral vision starts to expand naturally. Instead of focusing on one thing at a time, which is how the ego functions, you begin to see everything all at once, becoming the silent witness.

Focusing on one thing at a time actually takes effort.

Colors become brighter as the filter of the ego drops away. Sensations go straight in without being dulled by the ego’s thoughts and judgments.

Food tastes so much better, richer.

Everything starts to glow, both inanimate objects and animate.

You begin to understand that everything fits together perfectly as part of the totality. Separation becomes completely foreign. The reality seems to be that everything comes together as one magnificent symphony.

The ego operates by concentration, by selecting one individual point and analyzing everything about it, judging it, criticizing it, labeling it, categorizing it. It’s like listening to an orchestra and tuning out every musician except for one single person. You miss almost EVERYTHING by trying to focus on something.

When you surrender the ego, you reach a state of bliss because suddenly, you hear the symphony that’s been going on all around the entire time.

You don’t have to think about or analyze the symphony while listening to it. If you do, you start to lose the richness of the experience. Nothing is lost when you stop thinking and listen to everything as a whole.

This is what enlightenment is all about. It’s SO beautiful when you drop the mind and hear the incredible splendor and sheer gorgeousness going on all around you. It always has been and always will be. EVERYTHING is Love.

The high notes and the low notes, the fast notes and the slow notes all come together to produce the whole symphony. Both the bass and the treble are necessary, and everything in between. The totality is a state of absolute perfection.

Thanks for your question.

Emotions vs. Feelings

Emotion and feeling are often confused as one and the same, thought to be interchangeable. However, the two are actually quite different and serve different purposes.

Emotions are used for creation. (manifestation)
Feelings are used for communication. (intuition)

Emotion:

Emotion is the power which attracts. Your emotions are created by your thoughts.

If I say “Be Happy,” notice you can grin, but it won’t actually make you happy. You need to think of an event which makes you happy and THAT will lead to an emotional response which we call happiness.

Thought itself is pure energy. Every thought you have, have ever had, or ever will have is creative and produces energy. E-motion is energy in motion. It is the by-product of those thoughts.

This energy you create goes out into the universe and because like-attracts-like, you attract more of the same frequency of energy. When enough “clumps” of like energy come together, they form matter.

This is the essence behind the Law of Attraction. Read More …

The Gift of the Ego

Let’s have some fun and play God.

Imagine you live in the world of the Absolute, where everything is perfect, loving, whole, united, connected, and wonderful.

That’s great and all, but you can’t really understand or appreciate anything because you’ve never experienced its opposite.

So you’re God and you decide you want to blow yourself up into an infinite number of smaller versions of yourself, all of whom can experience the universe from every possible angle and vantage point.

Now, there’s no way to not be who you are. The next best thing you can do is to forget.

What’s a great way of doing this? Give these little pieces of yourself an ego.

The ego is basically what allows you to create the illusion of and thus experience the exact opposite of who you are. You choose to do this because it allows you to experience BOTH who you are and who you are not.

With this new gift of the ego, you can experience fear. Now you will be able to fully appreciate love. Read More …