A dissident view on the Law of Attraction
Most of us will have heard of the Law of Attraction, perhaps through the movie The Secret or the many books on the subject. Essentially, the law says that you attract into your life whatever you focus on. A whole industry has grown up around teaching people how to use the Law of Attraction (LoA) to manifest their desires and create anything from wealth to the perfect partner. Mastery of the LoA has become a spiritual goal in itself. Read More
Most of us will have heard of the term dark night of the soul and known instinctively what it means – a period of intense suffering or trouble where no solution can be found. The term was coined by the 16th century mystic known as John of the Cross, who was imprisoned and tortured for trying to bring about Church reforms. During his imprisonment he went through a profound crisis of belief that stripped away his illusions about himself and God, leading to his enlightenment.
John’s central message in his writings is that certain of our troubles are brought about not because we are weak and are failing in some way but because we are ready to take a leap into the unknown. All that once served us has to be stripped away for a new and unimagined self to be born. Read More
I really like the insight from EFT (emotional freedom techniques) that all symptoms – either emotional or physical – are the result of disruptions in our energy fields. In our essence we are whole and complete, but various traumas and negative experiences from the moment we are born (and even before) create blockages in our energy fields. We feel these blockages as repeated negative patterns, thoughts or emotions. Read More
Many of us spend a lot of time trying to get rid of our bad habits such as smoking, overeating, or drinking. But no matter how hard we try, we just seem to fall back into our old ways as soon as we relax our willpower a bit. It’s like the part that runs the habit is just waiting for a gap, and when it finds one it returns with a vengeance.
Read More
A mindfulness-based approach to coping with fear, anger, grief and other difficult emotions
Most of us have some trigger issues that send us into a tailspin of uncomfortable emotions such as fear, anger and sadness. No matter how much we work with these issues, we still seem to get caught out and become overwhelmed by negativity.
When this happens, we need to take a leap into a different dimension of healing – the field of awareness. When there is something that we simply cannot solve – when our lives are literally stopped and no amount of therapy will get things right – it’s time to consider that perhaps we are not being called upon to cure our affliction but to transcend it.
Transcendence is the ultimate acceptance of whatever it is that we are trying to get rid of. If you think about it, trying to fix something implies a duality – a split between a part that perceives itself as the good and another that is perceived as unwanted or bad. The actual symptom or behaviour might be causing us pain, but the belief that the pain is ‘not us’ and should not be part of us leads to mental suffering. Read More
Do you have to give up thoughts to live in the Now?
It’s often said that to be in the Now you need to give up thinking. However, it is the nature of mind to generate thoughts, and even trying not to think is just one more thought. The real problem is not the thoughts themselves, but rather our interest in those thoughts.
Next time any stressful thinking occurs, don’t try to stop it. Just observe the thoughts. Become interested in observation, and remove interest and investment in what the thoughts are saying. You will find that thoughts happen and observing happens. When there is no investment in the thoughts and you don’t give them any belief and you don’t follow them, they are just thoughts arising, and they cause no harm. Read More
I recently spent a few days at Temenos retreat in McGregor. While there I meditated on my own quest for knowledge and enlightenment. It seems I have been seeking something all my life, and all that has been found is more questions, more goals to be attained. Then it occurred to me that being a seeker was not the only way to be on the road in a quest for truth – one could also be a pilgrim. Read More
The concept of “living in the Now” has become popularised in recent years through the books of people such as Eckhart Tolle and Byron Katie. They tell us how important it is to live in the present moment and not to get distracted by fears (which are future projections) and hurts (which are perceptions of events in the past). If we can just stay focused in the present, we’ll discover true freedom and the end of suffering.
Well how many of us have got it right to actually do this? What seems to happen is that we become focused in the moment, and then suddenly the phone rings and it’s someone with bad news. Then where does our precious “Now” go to? It vanishes, and suddenly we’re back in psychological time and we’re suffering – except that now instead of just the bad news to cope with, we’re also beating ourselves up for being so easily thrown out of “The Now”. Read More
Before you began reading this sentence, while you are reading the sentence, and after the sentence is finished being read, awareness is here. Can you see the futility of seeking present awareness? It is what is, what is awake, what is simply being right now.
If you’re looking for Enlightenment, this article on Awareness by Scott Kiloby will help put an end to the search. Read the complete article.
In a conversation recently an ecologically-minded young woman told me of her doubt over having children. She wanted children, but it didn’t seem right to have them when the world was already so full of people. They would only add to the burden of the world and consume more of a dwindling supply of resources. It was quite a dilemma for her, and perhaps she is not alone in feeling this way.
How can we satisfy our own desires and the desires of the planet when they seem to be so much in conflict these days? Those who care about the environment feel real pain at what is happening. All evidence says the world needs fewer people, not more. And it needs the people who consume without regard for the future to stop doing what they are doing. We know what is good for the world, we are sure we know. It does not occur to us that this ‘knowing’, and the pain it causes us, are part of the problem.
Separation
In order for us to see the world as needing saving from the ignorant people, the greedy people, we need to view ourselves as separate from both those people and the earth itself. It does not occur to us that our willingness to sacrifice ourselves to save the planet is itself a form of violence. We see the world as out there, in distress, as something that needs fixing. It gives us a sense of identity to know that we know what the planet needs. But really, how do we know?
Could it perhaps be that we and the earth are not separate at all, that what we love the earth also loves? How terrible to think that the world might require us to deny the love that seeks to come through us. This thought is based on separation, and it places us on the same side as the speculators and developers who are plundering the earth in their own way. We are not different to them. If we see ourselves as different then we are simply affirming how similar we are – all of us lost in the same dream of separation.
Ending the war within
The world needs fewer people. Is that true? Perhaps it might be more true to say that the world needs fewer people who are at war in themselves. The planet can handle any number of people who understand that the greatest thing they can do for it is to allow love to come forth in the way that love chooses. If it wants to appear in the form of a child, let it do so. If it wants to come through as some great project, something that excites and inspires you, then it is the world itself that brings it forth. It is not your job to refuse it because you think you know what the world needs. You don’t.
All you will have to let you know you are right is a feeling of expansiveness and inspiration that flows up from the heart when you contemplate a particular action. If you feel this, then your project is a blessing to the world because it is no different to the world. If it feels like duty, like a closing down, then it is simply ego trying to tell the world it knows what’s best. And, quite simply, it doesn’t.
