There is Always Reason to be Grateful

Adapted from Why God is Laughing, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2008).

This second principle is an antidote to victimization. It establishes that you are seen and provided for. The more you notice the truth of this principle, the less you will believe that you are a victim.

Looking around, it’s obvious that life is orderly. A bee flies from flower to flower, eating and pollinating in accordance with a magnificent, ordered scheme.

Millions of years of evolution have exquisitely matched bee and flower so that neither can exist without the other. Why, then, do we believe that our own lives can’t be effortlessly sustained? One major obstacle is that we see ourselves as victims. Our bodies are subject to aging and death. Accidents are unavoidable. Catastrophe and disaster looms just around the corner, controlled by a whimsical destiny. And simply imagining the terrible things that can happen to you brings as much suffering as the events themselves.

Being a victim is the logical result of being in constant danger. If God sustains us, then surely he must reverse this whole scheme of random accidents that puts everyone in peril. This is a tricky point, however, because we are also surrounded by abundance in nature. Optimists point to our green Earth overflowing with life, nourishment, and beauty. However, can a loving God really supply us with life’s good things one day and pain the next? Most people who feel grateful to God tend to deny that he is also responsible for disease, calamity, and death. Yet an all-knowing, all-powerful deity can’t be responsible for only part of what goes on. Either he sustains everything or nothing.

The way to escape from living under a God who brings pleasure one day and pain the next is to realize that God isn’t a person. We only call God “he” because our minds resist thinking of God as a total abstraction. In truth, being total, God has to be abstract. You can’t wrap your mind around the All. Instead, we wrap our minds around the things we notice, and choose to believe in.

To the extent that you notice God in your life, acknowledge him with gratitude. God doesn’t need to be thanked—after all, he already has everything, including thanks. But by choosing gratitude you are selecting a benevolent aspect of the All on which you want to focus.

The purpose of gratitude is to connect yourself to a higher vision of life. You have the power to choose whether to activate the aspect of God that gives or the aspect that takes away. Whatever you pay attention to will grow. If you pay attention to those aspects of God that demonstrate love, truth, beauty, intelligence, order, and spiritual evolution, those aspects will begin to expand in your life. Bit by bit, like a mosaic, disparate fragments of grace will merge to form a complete picture. Eventually this picture will replace the more threatening one you have carried around inside you since infancy.

The external world claims to be real, but it too is an image created in consciousness and projected outward. Once you realize that you alone are the projector of reality, you will no longer be dominated by external events. You will correct the mistake that lies at the very root of victimization: A belief that the movie controls you, instead of the other way around.

My thought:

We have to make available all the most useful tools to ourselves. This will enable us to truly resolve any situation. There are no victims in a grateful world. Through gratitude the high vision connection is achieved and we realize that we’ve created an illusion of victimization. You have the ability to project that which you think!

Love is…

TL

How to Experience Freedom

Adapted from Power, Freedom, and Grace by Deepak Chopra (Amber Allen, 2006).
What does it mean to be free and what does it mean to be in bondage?
To be in bondage is to be stuck in this or that possibility, having lost the ability to choose from an infinite range of responses. What is the bondage to? The bondage is always to our own boundaries, to our own beliefs and conditioned responses. Boundaries and beliefs are nothing more than ideas or concepts that we have committed to and accepted as truth. And when they are as rigid and inflexible as concrete, we cannot see past them. They become the prison walls that we inadvertently construct around ourselves. You wrap yourself in thoughts the way a spider wraps flies in gossamer. You are both the spider and the fly, entangling yourself in your own web.
Most people live their entire lives in bondage. They are a bundle of nerves and conditioned responses, which are constantly being triggered by other people and circumstances into totally predictable outcomes. To be free of bondage, we have to break down conditioned responses; we have to go beyond boundaries and experience the boundless.
To experience and practice freedom you need to:

• Practice life-centered, present-moment awareness.
  
• Observe your addictive behaviors without judgment.
  
• Transcend your fear of the unknown.
  

My thought:  YOU HAVE THE CHOICE TO CHOOSE!!! To make the best choices you need to be informed, knowledgeable and free within yourself to make the decision. Be aware, observe and walk openly in to the unknown!                   
Love is…
TL

Dealing with Negativity

Adapted from The Third Jesus, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2008).
There are a number of different techniques to deal with negativity. It takes time before you find the right response to suit a specific situation. The more patient you are with yourself, the better. One day you may need tears, the next day it’s a matter of patient waiting or talking to your inner self. Here are some methods of dealing with negativity to add to your repertoire:

• Patient waiting. Notice your negative reaction and watch it for a moment. Be attentive to your feelings as they are, without judging or forcing them to change. This response is quiet, but it isn’t passive. You are removing the shock value of the moment, softening the feeling so that you don’t act on it impulsively or push it away. You are letting it dissipate naturally, at its own pace. You are also practicing detachment.
  
• Talk out the problem. Any negative experience in the mind is part of yourself. It’s neither alien nor evil. Try talking to your fear or hostility. Ask to know what it means. Find out why it chose to show itself at this particular moment.
  
• Ask the underlying energy to leave. Not all negativity wants to stick around. We are all aware of passing moods and sudden flashes of emotion that soon subside. Ask the negative energy to leave, but first give it a chance to say what it has to say.
  
• Summon help and assistance. Your mind has countless levels. At higher levels, you possess much more control and authority than you realize. Learning to trust in aspects of your higher self that you can’t see is important. Ask for help in removing unwanted negative energy. Some people address their angels and guides; others pray to God; still others make a request to the higher self directly. Depending on your own beliefs, don’t hesitate to say that you are feeling overwhelmed and need help.
  
• Physical responses. Turn to the wisdom of the body. Although the mind always wants to rush in and take charge, life is a cooperative venture between mind and body. As some body workers like to say, there are issues in the tissues. So let your body do what it wants in order to release the grip of a negative experience. This can be physical, or even toning, which means humming or singing at certain pitch and then letting the body carry the tone up or down.
  

My thought:
This post is per several requests. I have been asked several times this month how I deal with negative energy. The key there is to DEAL with it! Find your own way to identify it, make an informed decision to deal with it and take action (NOT REACT) towards not making that energy your own (Don’t take it on). I believe the most important step I take is learning from the root not the cause (the cause is not always the root) of that negative energy. Getting to the root of any issue helps you to restructure and move forward positively. *ALWAYS remember the universe is showing YOU everything for a reason and/or you are ultimately creating all you see around you. So it is you who must learn, reflect and grow in all situations.* Don’t be afraid to do things in a way that is best for you, cry if YOU need to, scream if YOU need to, run 5 miles if YOU need to but do what YOU need to do. Ultimately you help the greater good by presenting a more positive YOU!
 

Have a GLORIOUS WEEKEND!! Be Safe Be Well Be PEACE!
Love is…
TL

Seeking Signs of Spiritual Growth

Adapted from The Third Jesus,by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2008).
The soul is the highest form of the self. It doesn’t unfold biologically like a child’s brain and behavior. But in other respects there’s an undeniable similarity: The soul works beneath the surface, and when its work comes to fruition, consciousness shifts.
In the case of childhood development, it may seem that nothing is actually happening. If you make a video of a 3-year-old’s typical day, you won’t see isolated moments of epiphany or awakening where the child says, “Aha, I just had a glimpse of what it will be like when I am 4.” Appearances are deceiving, however, because invisible changes are occurring beneath the surface, and when they come to fruition, the child will consciously know that something happened. Old interests fall away; new ones arise. A stronger sense of confidence emerges, along with a more informed sense of self.
It would be wrong to say that children are the puppets of biology. They have to participate in their own development, taking an active interest in exploring the world and finding out their own potential. When this doesn’t happen, when the child is inert and passive, the diagnosis is autism. In spiritual terms, the same holds true. The seeker must take an active interest in the soul’s unfolding, or the result will be inert.
That’s why I find myself reluctant to use the word seeker, because it denies the spontaneity of inner growth while at the same time implying that the goal is outside the self. Seekers seem like hunters on a safari to capture the soul. The spiritual path isn’t like that. The goal is within and ever present. Better to say that one is trying to uncover the true essence of the self. We have all loved at times, felt compassion and risen to acts of selflessness. We know the difference between being awake and asleep, at least vaguely, and being awake feels better. It produces a better life.
You must keep in mind that the real you is love, is truth, is God. By removing the obstacles and resistances that hide your essence, you reveal yourself to yourself. Essence, being permanent, can’t be destroyed, only masked. It patiently awaits the day when you wake up to who you really are.
My thought:
By awaking to the YOU under the mask you find peace and harmony. Anger is just an emotion and not one to be negated. Emotions are necessary; it is what you do with each emotion that shows whether or not your true essence has been unmasked. DIG DEEP, let go of that MASK and JUST BE!   
Love is…
TL

Healing Your Inner Needs 

Adapted from The Path to Love, by Deepak Chopra (Three Rivers Press, 1997). 

When you heal separation, your needs will not reflect fear and insecurity. All of us bring needs to relationships, but they don’t have to turn into attachment. Attachment is created when needs aren’t understood and faced. Needs you place on your partner never really get resolved. Therefore even if your partner bends over backward to satisfy every need you have, the final outcome will be the same as if none of your needs was met: You will be left to confront why you have such needs. This “why” is answered by examining how you feel about being in separation, for the underlying anxiety of separation from God, spirit, and Self is what created need in the first place. 

In many relationships there is a confusing mismatch between what two people actually consider most important. How can neediness be healed when there is constant jockeying over what two people want? We have to make a distinction between external needs, like food and shelter, and inner needs. Inner needs come down to what makes you feel secure. 

If you are on two different paths, one way or another the weaker partner will wind up giving in to the stronger, or one of you will repress your true needs in hopes that you will find happiness through sacrifice. 

This rarely if ever works. 

Giving in to another person’s needs is actually a form of attachment. Having thrown away your own desires, you will be forced to cling to the other person to bring you satisfaction. This is a form of separation from your true identity, and in the end you cannot hope to use separation of any kind to reach unity. 

The object is to find the balance of male and female within you rather than take the easy road, which is to attach yourself to someone else’s strengths as a compensation for your weaknesses. 

My thought: 

Those in strong relationships learn from each other passionately. It is within the steps of learning you’ll experience growth as a unit! All things begin with self; examine and exhaust looking within before looking at others as the source! Connect, Experience and GROW! 

Love is… 

TL 

About the 5 Senses

Adapted from The Book of Secrets, by Deepak Chopra (Three Rivers Press, 2004).
The more consciousness you have the more potential you have to create. Pure consciousness, because it underlies everything, is pure potential. Your alternatives are:
• Depending on the five senses: Separation, duality, ego-based, subject to fear, detached from the source, limited in time and space.
• Depending on natural law: In control, less subject to fear, taps into natural resources, inventive, understanding, explores the reaches of time and space.
• Depending on consciousness: Creative, intimate with natural law, close to the source, boundaries dissolve, intentions turn into results, beyond time and space.
Awareness is all that changes in the journey from separation to the one of reality. When you depend on your five senses, you are aware of the physical world as primary reality. In such a world you must come second because you see yourself as a solid object made up of atoms and molecules. The only role your awareness has is to look upon the world as “out there.”
The five senses are extremely deceptive. They tell us that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, that the Earth is flat, that an object made of steel couldn’t possibly be held up by the air. The next state of awareness depends upon laws of nature that are arrived at by thinking and experimenting. The observer is no longer a victim of deception.
When the human brain considers the laws of nature, the material world is still “out there” to be explored. More power is gained over nature, but if this level of awareness was the ultimate one (as many scientists think it is) utopia would be a technological triumph. However, the brain can’t set itself aside forever.
Eventually someone has to ask, “Who am I doing all this thinking?” That’s the question that leads to pure awareness. For if you empty the brain of all thoughts (as in a state of meditation), awareness turns out not to be empty, void and passive.
My thought:
By gaining more awareness your happiness level will rise. Your attitude will shift to one that seeks out the positive yet understands the need that bought the negative. That attitude will search for the details in the answers! To ask the questions is not enough, you have to want to know the answers!! Create and become full through your awareness!    
Love is…
TL

The Times They Are A-Changing
by Owen Waters

Suddenly, the Vatican says that it’s OK to believe in
extra-terrestrial aliens. The Vatican is not the only bastion
of conservatism to have come out with such a policy in recent
months. Both the British and the French governments have now
released their extensive files on sightings of Unidentified
Flying Objects.

Governments have been shy of talking about UFOs ever since the
national panic that Orson Welles caused in America in 1938 when
he read out an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ novel, ‘The War of the
Worlds’ over the radio. The broadcast lasted 60 minutes without
commercial interruption and was formatted as a series of news
broadcasts about the progress of an ongoing alien invasion of
Earth.

People who tuned into the radio show after the initial
announcement about it being fictional were swept up into a
panic that quickly spread across the country. The drama hit
such a public nerve in those tense and anxious days leading up
to World War II that millions of listeners became
panic-stricken. The fallout in the press was enormous, with
12,500 newspaper articles appearing about this episode over the
next month.

For decades since then, the fear of public panic in the face
of a real, mass alien landing has helped to keep governments
quiet about UFO incidents. Also, there was always the nagging
fear in the minds of politicians that, if extra-terrestrials
landed and spoke words of wisdom, people might start following
the ETs instead of the politicians. That fear has since been
largely eclipsed by the fact that, today, very few people
listen to politicians anyway!

In a recent edition of the Vatican newspaper, the Rev. Jose
Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory,
was quoted as saying the vastness of the universe means it is
possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even
intelligent ones. So, he said, believing that the universe may
contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God.

“How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?”
Funes said. “Just as we consider earthly creatures as ‘a
brother,’ and ’sister,’ why should we not talk about an
‘extraterrestrial brother’? It would still be part of creation.”

In the interview for the newspaper article, Funes said that
such a notion “doesn’t contradict our faith” because aliens
would still be God’s creatures. Ruling out the existence of
aliens would be like “putting limits” on God’s creative freedom.

Funes said science, especially astronomy, does not contradict
religion, touching on a theme of the current Pope Benedict XVI,
who has made exploring the relationship between faith and
reason a key aspect of his papacy. The Vatican Observatory has
made great efforts to bridge the gap between religion and
science. It was founded in 1891 and is based in Castel
Gandolfo, a lakeside town in the hills outside Rome where the
pope has a summer residence. The Vatican Observatory also has a
team which conducts research at the University of Arizona
observatory in Tucson.

Funes went on to say that the Bible “is not a science book,”
adding that he believes the Big Bang theory is the most
“reasonable” explanation for the creation of the universe. The
theory says the universe began billions of years ago in the
explosion of a single, super-dense point that contained all
matter. But, he said, such a beginning to the universe would
have been the work of God as “God is the creator of the
universe and we are not the result of chance.”

Funes urged the church and the scientific community to leave
behind divisions caused by Galileo’s persecution 400 years ago,
saying the incident has “caused wounds.” In 1633 the astronomer
was tried as a heretic and forced to recant his theory that the
Earth revolved around the sun. Church teaching at the time
placed Earth at the center of the universe. Galileo was
imprisoned, and later released to spend his final years under
house arrest.

“The church has somehow recognized its mistakes,” he said.
“Maybe it could have done it better, but now it’s time to heal
those wounds and this can be done through calm dialogue and
collaboration.” Pope John Paul declared in 1992 that the ruling
against Galileo was an error resulting from “tragic mutual
incomprehension.”

From this recent news article, it would seem that the Vatican
is beginning to bridge the gap between science and religion in
an attempt to become aligned with the wider view of reality
presented by modern scientific knowledge. Where this will
eventually lead is anyone’s guess, but an evolving
consciousness in humanity makes plenty of room for the
potential for philosophical reform in traditional areas.

It is heartening to see that, today, the times certainly are
a-changing. 

My thought: 

 I am not going to go into politics or religion but I will offer a warning of being open to awareness. It is through awareness your character will flourish. This world changes daily; are you prepared to live in while being aligned with the greater good! 

Love is… 

TL

PS.  REMEMBER OUR ELDER  El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz