When was the last time you played around?

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One day a man decided to retire…

He booked himself on a Caribbean cruise and proceeded to have the time of his life, that is, until the ship sank.

He soon found himself on an island with no other people, no supplies, nothing, only bananas and coconuts.  
After about four months, he is lying on the beach one day when the most gorgeous woman he has ever seen rows up to the shore.  

In disbelief, he asks, “Where did you come from? How did you get here?”

She replies, “I rowed over from the other side of the island where I landed when my cruise ship sank.”  
“Amazing,” he notes. “You were really lucky to have a row boat wash up with you.”

“Oh, this thing?” explains the woman. ” I made the boat out of some raw material I found on the island. The oars were whittled from gum tree branches. I wove the bottom from palm tree branches, and the sides and stern came from an Eucalyptus tree.”

“But, where did you get the tools?”

“Oh, that was no problem,” replied the woman. ” On the south side of the island, a very unusual stratum of alluvial rock is exposed. I found that if I fired it to a certain temperature in my kiln, it melted into ductile iron and I used that to make tools and used the tools to make the hardware.”

The guy is stunned.

“Let’s row over to my place,” she says “and I’ll give you a tour.” So, after a short time of rowing, she soon docks the boat at a small wharf. As the man looks to shore, he nearly falls off the boat.

Before him is a long stone walk leading to a cabin and tree house.

While the woman ties up the rowboat with an expertly woven hemp rope, the man can only stare ahead, dumb struck. As they walk into the house, she says casually, “It’s not much, but I call it home. Please sit down.”

“Would you like a drink?”  
  
“No! No thank you,” the man blurts out, still dazed. “I can’t take another drop of coconut juice.”

“Oh, it’s not coconut juice,” winks the woman. “I have a still. How would you like a Tropical Spritz?”  

Trying to hide his continued amazement, the man accepts, and they sit down on her couch to talk. After they exchange their individual survival stories, the woman announces,   ” I’m going to slip into something more comfortable. Would you like to take a shower and shave? There’s a razor in the bathroom cabinet upstairs.”

No longer questioning anything, the man goes upstairs into the bathroom. There, in the cabinet is a razor made from a piece of tortoise bone. Two shells honed to a hollow ground edge are fastened on to its end inside a swivel mechanism.

“This woman is amazing,” he muses. “What’s next?”  
  
When he returns, she greets him wearing nothing but some small flowers on tiny vines, each strategically positioned, she smelled faintly of gardenias. She then beckons for him to sit down next to her.

“Tell me,” she begins suggestively, slithering closer to him, “We’ve both been out here for many months.  You must have been lonely. When was the last time you played around?   She stares into his eyes.

He can’t believe what he’s hearing. “You mean…” he swallows excitedly as tears start to form in his eyes,

………………………………………………..

“You’ve built a Golf Course?”

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The Silent Observer – There is nothing you have to do, be, say or go to, to experience your true self.

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Identify the Silent Observer

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As one seeking spiritual enlightenment, you will try many ways to find or align your awareness to your true self. There is a way, a small experiment that you can do now to sense the awareness of what you are seeking.

Often writers and teachers will tell you that what you are, is already within you. They will call it spirit, soul, God, true self and many other things. The truth is, these things are not in you because it would create a duality-there would be you and it.

Your true self cannot be within in you no more than it can be outside of you. There is only the silent observer, the one who watches and listens, judges, nor reacts to anything. It is just there and it knows what you are thinking-what you are feeling. It is always there because it is all there is. There is no separation between you and what you are thinking. You are the awareness, that knowing-thinking out loud in the chasms of your mind and body. You are the silence, listening and feeling the rhythm of life in what you assume is your body.

To get a sense of this other thing that is part of your body try this:

Close your eyes for a couple of minutes. Begin to notice your mind thinking, but don’t concentrate on the thoughts. Now listen to the noises around you and don’t pay any attention to them. Do you smell anything, can you taste your own saliva. Are you comfortable and do you have any physical sensations-notice them!

Now, as you continue listening to your thoughts which are loud and crystal clear in your head-try to notice who is listening to your thoughts. Who is it in your head doing the listening? There is a presence there that is hearing everything. There is an awareness that knows what you are feeling or sensing. Who or what is this presence. You cannot ignore it, it is there. You are completely aware of everything going on in your body, but who are you-the one thinking or the one listening? This awareness is who you truly are. It is what you may call spirit, soul, or true self. It is what you have been looking for. It is why you meditate and pray. It is always there and you didn’t have to find it. It is the silent observer-the witness to your physical life. It is always in the background-it is not your ego or personality-it’s your true self-it is what you are looking for.

In the act of being spiritual, you lead yourself away from this awareness, this knowingness. It is the natural rhythm of life to move away from itself so that it may know itself. As you become acquainted with the silent observer or awareness which is you-you will find yourself watching and listening to what your mind and body are doing. You will notice what the body is doing, but you will not be a part of it.

From time to time you will talk out loud to it and you may even think you are losing your mind. It is the self that you have been looking for for years. All the things you have done have taken you away from it. Your body is a hollow chamber filled with this consciousness-it is creation itself-it is the holy one. You are the silent one seeking to speak. You are the emotionless one seeking to experience emotion. You are the nothingness seeking to experience something. There is nothing you have to do, be, say or go to, to experience your true self.

If you want to experience the silent observer, close your eyes and be aware, be conscious of the one who is listening to your thoughts.

Author Unknown

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Remember that your in-basket will still be full even on the day you die.

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Assist people to achieve what they really desire if you want to make friends for life, become awfully rich or become very popular. Our expectation and hope drives us forward and helps us to overcome serious setbacks.

 

Attempt to make the right and best choice on a moment-to-moment basis. If you are going to wait for the perfect moment or until you have all the data, you might never make up your mind. Remember that your in-basket will still be full even on the day you die.

 

Attitude plays a vital role in everything you do. A poor attitude can never produce good results. A poor attitude is at the root of most failures. A poor attitude caused more marriages to fail and relationships to break down than all the other reasons put together.

 

Avoid head on confrontations or disputes if you can. There are usually no winners in such ego driven fights. The urge to win is sometimes so strong that it clouds our mind and judgment. An obsession by both parties to win usually lead to a major loss for at least one of the parties.

 

Avoid people that have the tendency to make their problem yours. By appearing helpless or lost, they con you into taking ownership of their problems. You are not a garbage truck that are contracted to remove everybody’s garbage (problems).

 

Avoid people that promise you the world, but do little. When you rely on an “empty promise” person, he will cause you endless problems. Good advice is to do things yourself if you want to make sure that they are taken care of.

 

Avoid saying things that could make people feel idiotic or inferior. It might give you a short-term ego boost, but in the long run, you will create an army of enemies that would love to even the score.

 

Avoid the misconception that people want to hear what is right and just. They want to be fed what they feel suits their current purpose. Give people what they want and you will be richly rewarded. When you help people to achieve their own objectives, they are usually more susceptible to yours.

 

Balance and decency is in during periods of success. When instant gratification becomes our main objective, we rapidly slide into the abyss of failure and discomfort. The wise man mastered the art of projecting himself into others’ shoes. When you act in a fair and responsible manner you enhance your chances of success many fold.

 

Be careful and remain grounded when you are faced with obsessive driven individuals. These individuals tend to exaggerate and amplify things in an attempt to buy your support. Certain politicians, clergy and conmen are experts at the art of mass hypnosis. When you are in the presence of passion driven individuals you need to question, probe and take nothing for granted. If you do you will do it at your peril.

Rene

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You will set yourself free when you get your “judgemental” mind out of the way.

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Listening transforms relationships. The ability to listen with our spiritual ears reveals what we have been unable to hear for the best part of our lives. Most of us are very selective in what we hear. We can only hear to the extent that we mastered our ego. Our ego or false self tuned our ability to hear down to its lowest level.

We fail to hear the words that are spoken by those that we interact with. We cannot hear the voice of God that fills the spaces between words and sentences. The real messages shared with us are subliminal and embedded in the fractions of silence that occupy the space between words and sentences.

We are so busy preparing our answers or judging what a person have to say that we hardly ever hear the lessons and lectures that God is sending us during these conversations. We hear the anger in a person’s voice, but the thought never cross our mind that it is really fear that is causing his or her barrage of words and accusations.

When we learn to listen, we become aware of the true message that a person want to share with us. The universal language works across all language barriers. You can understand the hidden messages transmitted if you get your judgmental mind out of the way.

You can listen to the cry of a fish eagle and will suddenly be able to understand his plight. You can listen to the waves and might discover that it tells you about its journeys down endless rivers for millions of years. You do not hear this language you feel it in your soul. Listen to the wind. It is an integral part of a very complicated system. A system that ensures sustained life on this planet.

When you really listen to your partner you might for the first time discover the pain and uncertainty that he dragged with him since early childhood.

Become still and get your false self out of the way. Your false self wants to keep you imprisoned in a state of illusion. You will peel away the layers of residue that blocked the perfect spirit at your core.

Listen to the wind, the songs of the whales and the conversations of the birds in your garden if you want to unite with your creator. Every grain of sand and every drop of rain has God embedded at its core.

You will for the first time hear the wonderful glory of God when you start listening with your spiritual ears. You can learn more from the sound of a thunder storm than you will learn from a guru that preach about a separate God that view mankind as useless sinners.

You will become aware of God’s voice when you stop taking yourself so serious. Become still, listen to the silence and allow the wondrous glory of God to fill your tired body and over burdened mind. Your fear and doubt will dissolve like mist in the morning sun.

Rene

 

(Extract from my book “The Treasure Within”

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The ‘Please Love Me’ Dynamic

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What’s in the past, is in the past. Let go of it! Apply your energy to today/appreciate the life that you have.

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You need to stop living your life having regrets for things in your past. Constantly thinking about events from your past that you aren’t proud of, mistakes you may have made in your relationships, or things you “should have” done isn’t going to make your future any better. You need to accept where you are in your life for what it is, and learn from your “mistakes”. No matter how bad you view something from your past to be, take the time to really find something positive from it. Look hard. There is something there.

Things are going to happen to you. They happen to everybody. It’s how you deal with them that allows you to grow as a person and an overall happier human being. If you’re able to find just one positive from an event, you will grow. Consider this example:

Say you’re in college and your friends invite you out for a few beers. However, you have a big exam the next day. You’ve studied for weeks and are certain of all the material that’s going to be on the exam. You decide to go because you heard that cute guy or girl you’ve had your eye on is going to be there. You have a few beers and finally get the courage to do some flirting. After a few more beers, you’re pretty drunk and decide you need to go home. You catch a few hours sleep and take your exam. Long story short, you fail the exam because you made a bad decision to go out the night before. You feel complete disappointment in yourself, which you should. However, instead of moping around about it, learn from your mistake and move on with your life. Realize that your hard work doesn’t pay off unless you complete the project. Studying for weeks for the exam was wasted for a night out of fun. Learn what you need to do to accomplish the goals you set out for yourself, and stay disciplined until you have successfully completed what you set out to do.

To take that first move toward to a new positive way of pursuing life, try the following:

Make a list of the events from your life that you continue to dwell on and can’t seem to let go of.

For each event, write down what your mistake was, what you learned from this mistake, and something positive you have today because of the situation.

 Let go of it!

If you are able to release the binds of the past and start to live for today, you will start to feel a happiness that is very rewarding. What’s in the past, is in the past. It cannot be undone. Apply your energy to today and appreciate the life that you have.

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By: Clayton Vincent

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

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Yesterdays failures will remain powerless in your mind if you stop recharging its batteries.

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The rain of forgiveness wash away the hurt and pain of yesteryear. No healing can take place while you cling to your historical letdowns and painful experiences of the past. Great purity of thinking and the miraculous healing of wounds usually take place after unconditional forgiveness. Remember that forgiveness does not mean that you approve what was done to you. The act of forgiveness release the person that “sinned” against you from your mind. The lack of the ability to forgive and detach prevent you from moving on. You get stuck in what could or should have been. Wonderful opportunities will pass you by if you live in the past. The train of life is constantly moving forward. You are either on the train (in the now) or stuck on a station hoping that things can return to what could or should have been. The ability to let go of toxic thoughts, events, failures or broken promises with set your mind free. All you have is this very moment. What could or should have been is nothing more than “files” that you recall from your sub-conscious mind. You are the one that supply the past with the power to contaminate your current moment. Yesterdays failures will remain powerless files in your mind if you stop recharging its batteries with your thoughts and regrets.     

Rene

 

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Happiness is a ridding process. It is the removing of false perception and expectation.

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Recall the image above the next time you feel unhappy about anything. Happiness is not the adding of things or the obtaining of things. Happiness is not gaining the approval of someone and it is also not something you feel when you finally reached your goal. Happiness is a ridding process. It is the removing of false perception and expectation. Peel away your false expectation and start enjoying your journey through life on step at a time. Make each moment your happy moment. It is futile to look at outside sources for your happiness. Happiness can not enter your mind and heart when you have endless barriers like grudges, fear, guilt and judgements that block the inflow of success and fun. How can you play the game of life and act like a victim? You will be unable to notice the endless opportunities to embrace love and happiness while you remain stuck in your history and feel sorry for yourself. Your path to recovery and success can start this very moment. Let go of what could or should have been.  

Rene

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Release, and set yourself free of your self-created prison.

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I’m sitting in an ancient monastery by myself. Soaking up the atmosphere.

In front of me, young Buddhist monks are gathering in clusters for their meditative practice. They each wear bright orange robes.

I sit around. Observing their rites and traditions for hours. It’s both peaceful and insightful. It makes you go to a place inside and question yourself.

Near the end of my day, one of the monastery leaders came up to me. He was the traditional wise Zen master. His robe was a deep orange, apparently a sign of his maturity and experience within this Buddhist community.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” he asked.

It’s true. I’d gone there with questions in my head. At the time, I was battling with two seemingly competing principles.

Firstly — Money.

Yes, I live in the west. And as a modern-day realist, I know that money actually makes things happen.

Money can’t buy you happiness. But it can certainly buy you a lot of therapy, as one someone famously suggested. And a lack of it can very easily bring on sadness.

But my desire for wealth seemed to conflict with something else…

Secondly — Spiritual Growth.

How can you be spiritual and honest and authentic and true, while still having that western money mindset?

Didn’t personal growth mean giving up worldly possessions? Surely money was a bad thing, a need you should outgrow?

Two very seemingly conflicting ideas, all bubbling around in my head…

I explained some of this to the Zen monk. After a while, he pointed to my head.

“All your problems are up there,” he said. “Entirely in your mind.”

“So, what’s the solution?” I asked. And yes, I felt like a tourist.

But what he said next has stuck with me ever since.

“Be a rich monk!” he laughed.

Be a rich monk……..

He was saying that we often hold crazy misconceptions in our heads…

We think we need a big epiphany to become self-realized. We think that number 13 is genuinely unlucky, and have experiences to prove it.

We think we can’t be rich… and be spiritually developed.

Does that sound like you?

Are crazy linked beliefs holding YOU back?

Drop these silly, limiting self-beliefs. They just don’t serve you. They only ever tie you up and stop you from experiencing true joy in your life.

You’re being limited by “buggy” brain programming. You CAN be a rich monk!

4 Crazy Misconceptions about the Spiritual Life

The self-development world is a wonderful place.

But it’s full of crazy misconceptions. Silly ideas about things that you must do or must experience in order to become truly self-realized.

This section is about realizing that these firm ideas are really nothing more than urban myths. It’ll help you stop getting caught up in your own limited thoughts – and speed you down the freedom freeway.

To get started, let me tell you about a friend I have in London called Jin.

Now Jin is on the self-development journey. He’s a seeker. He’s looking for something.

Speaking to me just last week, he bemoaned: “I can’t believe it. I’ve tried everything and nothing works. I’ve just left a month long self-development workshop in the States – and I still don’t feel right. I’ve simply not had that big bang moment yet!”

Whoah. Crazy Misconception #1 In Progress.

You do not need an epiphany in order to enjoy freedom and the results of self-development. You do not need to be dramatically healed, or see an angel, or feel just so different.

Many people in the self-development are waiting – as Jin put it – for that big bang. 

Until that occurs, they don’t feel fixed.

Drop the foolishness. You don’t need – and probably won’t get – an epiphany. Get over it, and be free as you are right now.

Which leads us on to Crazy Misconception #2:

You can’t be fixed, because you aren’t broken.

Many individuals that enter the world of self-development feel bad or wrong or poisoned in some way. They feel they’ve been broken – and that they need to be fixed.

Well, you are not broken. You’re already whole and perfect as you are right now. There’s absolutely nothing you need to change. You’re only feeling limited by the limiting thoughts you hold in mind.

So stop trying to fix yourself. You are not broken.

Moving on to Crazy Misconception #3:

Spiritual people give up their possessions.

Uhm. Sorry?

Many people in the world have the misguided belief that in order to be fully realized, they must give up their worldly goods. They consider gifting their home to a Buddhist retreat and spending the rest of their lives meditating in a remote
wooden hut.

Well, realize that it doesn’t have to be that way.

You can be 100% spiritual and self-developed and free – while still living and operating in the modern world. It’s the way of the cosmopolitan self-developed warrior.

The idea that you shouldn’t have both cash and spiritual fulfillment is both antiquated and just plain wrong.

We all know that money can’t buy you happiness. But it can certainly make things much easier.

So, be a living example of breaking that urban myth – and be a
rich monk.

And that takes us to Crazy Misconception #4:

You must meditate in order to be self-realized.

No way!

This is one of those crazy ideas perpetuated by hardcore Sedona residents that want nothing more but to sit in a circle and “Ohm” all day long. Personally, I indulge in some meditation – but getting my mind into a near lifeless state is something I’d prefer to reserve for when I’m dead.

If you want to meditate, then meditate. If you don’t, then
don’t.

There’s absolutely no reason you must meditate in order to truly discover your own freedom.

So, let’s quickly review.

You don’t need an epiphany. You’re not broken. You don’t need to throw away all of your money. You don’t have to meditate.

And this is just the beginning.

Think about your life right now.

What other rules, myths, superstitions, are you allowing to be imposed on your thinking?

What other things are you telling yourself that you must do in order to get where you’re going?

What other rituals are you undertaking, just because others say that’s what should be done?

Where are the beliefs you’re subscribing to right now? And have you questioned them recently?

Do you avoid walking under ladders? Do you get nervous saying “Beetlejuice” thrice? Do you get worried about detail after swearing on somebody’s life? Perhaps you’re even a little nervous about this rule… Rule #13.

Drop the weird beliefs. They don’t serve you.

Release, and set yourself free of your self-created prison. Stop following the crazy rules, follow your bliss, and you’ll be a self-developed, spiritually fulfilled, rich monk. And a better person for it.

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By Karl Moore / Source: The Brain Salon

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