December 2006

One of the most important factors in our ability to attract what we want is meaning--the higher the meaning, the more powerful our ability to attract. If what I am trying to attract is a transient goal, like wealth, and that is what is meaningful to me, where does that leave me after I have reached my goal. Unless my perspective and meaning is far wider, I will experience meaninglessness. My inspiration to achieve will be gone. My energy will be gone. That is why so many men and women go through depression at mid-life. They feel empty. "Is that all there is to life?" is the question that preoccupies their consciousness.
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A Lesson from Life
December 2, 2006

Sometimes we just need to let go of how we think things are supposed to be. As Inayat Khan said, "Nothing is good or bad; it's the mind that makes it so." It reminds me of the enigmas of Heraclitus: "That which opposes produces a benefit." New ways of thinking are required. The crisis becomes the opportunity. Flexibility, creativity, resilience, perseverance, poise are all exercised when faced with opposing force. Sometimes it's just a matter of perspective.
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Meaning of Life
December 4, 2006

The meaning of life gives direction to consciousness. The forces set in motion by the unfoldment of the new meaning cannot fail to hit the intended mark. No opposition can be too much. The intention is already a reality even if it is not already manifested. The seed is planted and the tree will grow. No sacrifice will be too great in pursuit of that quest. As St.Theresa was fond of saying, "All the way to heaven is heaven." Purposeful life is driven by motivation; motivation is born from meaning. The energy that flows from meaning to motivation to purposeful life is power personified.
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Meaningful Work
December 5, 2006

We cannot expect success in our inner life if we compartmentalize our life's activities into good and bad. Nobody can have a career conducive to inner life where the most important fact of the day is in the number of remaining hours of work. Such is the lot of the sleepwalkers.
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Confidence
December 6, 2006

Can you imagine the frustration and boredom that JFK would have experienced if he decided to be a soybean farmer? What if Picasso decided to become a barber? People's haircuts would be pretty strange looking.
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Hero or Heretic?
December 8, 2006

Is there a difference between a hero and a heretic? Or between heroism and heresy? They all are derived from the Greek word, hairétikos, which means "able to choose." Are you content to stay within the indicated bounds? What if real love is at stake? If you fell in love with somebody, so deeply in love that you couldn't even sleep at night because of the pain of longing, and you were told by your parents, or religious authorities, that you couldn't continue the relationship because of a difference in religion, what would you do? Do you follow the indicated bounds or do you follow the dictates of your heart?
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Vibrational Medicine
December 9, 2006

I had first hand experience to the efficacy of vibrational medicine. My health was in a shambles the first time I went to see a practitioner named Dr. Henry Merwick. He was in his 80s at the time and this was over 25 years ago. My kidneys and liver were both severely damaged by the side effects of the western medicine that treated me two years earlier. Also my digestive disorder was in a shambles and I had arthritis. In the 25 years since I have seen him, I have had no more problems.
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Love Body
December 11, 2006

Today someone asked me if I knew of a tool that could be used to make it easier to listen to the voice of the heart when the mind talks so incessantly--when guilt and anxiety make it hard to experience satisfaction and peace. Two words immediately formed in my consciousness. "Love Body." This seemed to evoke a positive response. She said, "I like it, tell me more." What follows is my explanation, for the very first time, of these two words that were dropped into my lap, from what physicist David Bohm would call the enfolded universe.
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Enthusiasm that Matters
December 12, 2006

Susan Rabin said "Enthusiasm is contagious. Be a carrier." That's a positive thought. But it's also a scarry thought. Look at how many people were infected with Hitlermania in Nazi Germany. Look at how many people were killed in the name of God by enthusiastic realigious zealouts. How many men became carriers of the contagious HIV virus because of their intense enjoyment (enthusiasm) of gay sex?
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Plagued with Guilt
December 13, 2006

Guilt is tied to the past. It is a binding and limiting energy. It exists due to unconsciousness. The remedy for its elimination is the focus of consciousness. Consciousness is only possible when we are able to live in the present moment, connected to our source of being. That is when our heart is open, when we are able to love, when we are able to make choices. Only in the present moment are we able to respond to life. If we live with our minds riveted to the past, we can only react.
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Chronic Attitudes
December 15, 2006

In my own life, sometimes I get overconfident in my abilities to control my mind and stay focused and happy. This happens after long periods of time where everything goes perfectly and I'm feeling blissful day after day. Then wham! Something happens that sends the message: "Earth to Greg. Warning. Warning. Wake up."
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Worry
December 16, 2006

Have you ever noticed you or someone else getting worried about the outcome of a baseball, football, or basketball game? Do you ever worry at the movies, such as in a suspense thriller? The tendency to worry, even if it involves something illusory as a movie, is tied to the fact that we are attached to the outcome or the result.
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Beyond the Ego
December 18, 2006

"Looking out for number one" is the mantra of the ego. Selfishness is its mission statement. Fear and greed are its motivation or driving force. It is more concerned with appearances that with actual being. Its whole existence is based on the temporal and transitory, a house built on shifting sands.
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Unconscious Habit Patterns
December 19, 2006

Our approaches to life become habitual. Habitual approaches to life give us habitual results of mediocrity, or worse. If we want to improve the results, we have to change our approach. And we can only do this with conscious awareness--examining why we do the things we do. We need to examine how we do the things we do and why we do them that way. Are there other ways of getting the job done? What might the result be with another way?
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Communicating with Difficult People
December 20, 2006

In the early 1960s, tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union were at an all time high. Fear of all-out nuclear war was a concern for the whole world. That was the backdrop when President Kennedy spoke at American University on June 10, 1963. In this speech Kennedy called on the Soviet Union to work with the United States to achieve a nuclear test ban treaty and help reduce the considerable international tensions and the specter of nuclear war on the horizon.
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Was Leonardo da Vinci a Buddhist?
December 21, 2006

Leonardo da Vinci has always struck me as a Zen Buddhist. Consider the following quote: "In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes; so with present time." Is that Zen or what? Or how about this: "Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." Or, "Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art." How can anyone explain these words of Leonardo without attributing a Buddhist influence in his thinking? Maybe he was a Buddhist in his previous life. (In the realm of Buddhist possibilities I suppose.)
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Learning of My Ex-Wife's Death in a Novel
December 22, 2006

I lost track of my ex-wife Karen. It had been many years since I have seen her. But recently, I picked up a novel at the library by Amy Tan, Saving Fish from Drowning, and discovered that Karen was dead.
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Friends Don't Let Friends Sleepwalk
December 23, 2006

As lofty and high as my intentions might be, I still get tripped up and bummed out-lapses in my conscious awareness. And when my wife Maggie calls me on it, I thank her, because I have given her permission to call me on it. But most people don't give other people permission to call them on it, and we have to respect that. But if you want to be the change that Gandhi referred to, and you're committed to being a whole person with conscious intentions, then ask someone to call you on your behavior.
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Transcending Guilt
December 25, 2006

If you are suffering from guilt, be kind to yourself. Realize that you are a work in progress. No amount of guilt is ever going to heal the past. Only love can heal. Not only can it heal the wounds you have created, but it can heal wounds created by anyone. It can transform consciousness from the superficial and mechanical to a spiritual dynamic power -- restoring itself to the original unity of Being.
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Moving Beyond Ordinary
December 26, 2006

Moving beyond ordinary is as simple as choosing to do so. We need to abandon the world of finite imagination and begin the process of infinite imagination. Just because we lived life a certain way yesterday, and the day before that doesn't mean that we are limited in our choices to living it the same way again today and tomorrow.
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In the Zone
December 27, 2006

Being In the Zone is possible when your intuition takes over from the mind. You forget the self and tune into the flow of the Universal Self. There is no self-consciousness at these moments because your consciousness is so overwhelmed by the presence of this all-knowing presence. When we surrender to this, an intelligence beyond imagination takes over. It's like Albert Einstein dropping in to help a high school student write a physics term paper on relativity. Or in real life, Mozart "taking dictation" as he composed his music, or Michael Jordan hitting six straight 3-pointers in the 1992 championship series game against Portland, or Johnny Vander Meer throwing two consecutive no-hitters for the Cincinnati Reds in 1938.
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The Direct Path
December 28, 2006

There is a lot of emphasis in Personal Development about choosing the direct path to the goal. It seems an obvious enough truth. But life in the 21st century is a life of global distraction. If we want to get to our goal in direct fashion, we better have plenty of focus, motivation, and determination. And we better know what we want.
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You're a Goddamned Genius!
December 29, 2006

There is a scene in the movie Forest Gump when the mentally retarded Forrest is in basic training with the U.S. Army: Drill Sergeant: Gump! What's your sole purpose in this army? Forrest Gump: To do whatever you tell me, drill sergeant! Drill Sergeant: God damn it, Gump! You're a goddamned genius! This is the most outstanding answer I have ever heard. You must have a goddamn I.Q. of 160. You are goddamned gifted, Private Gump. Well guess what? You're a genius too.
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Spiritual Retreat Centers
December 30, 2006

Spiritual retreat centers serve a great function in this over-stressed world of duality. When my life seems fragmented, or stressful, that's where I go. After a few days, I return home rested, relaxed, renewed, and revitalized. It’s a transforming experience that I want to explain.
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Learning to See from a Blind Man
December 30, 2006

We arrived before the first set began. Everything so far was a typical night out at a club with friends but that was about to change. As soon as Getz played his first note, Jeff, who was blind, stood up, leaning forward, in an attempt to make sure he didn't miss one note that Getz played, sort of a blind person's version of getting a better view. His ears were his gateway to the world and he made sure that nothing stood between them and Getz's saxophone with its beautiful sound.
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Your Personal Calling is a Fate Already Sealed
December 31, 2006

A personal calling, coupled with resolve and patience, is a formula for success. If you are being honest with yourself, then failure needn't ever be an option. If your goal is aligned with your consciousness--your source of being--and if it is for the good of all, then how could you possibly fail? The consciousness of the universe is always seeking avenues of expression. That is why the universe came into existence. Become an avenue of its expression and you have the power of the universal consciousness working with you, not against you. Or you can look at it like Emerson did when he said, "If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me."
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