The Bliss of Being

Sometimes I think the central question for humanity is “What should I do with my time here on this planet?” After the basics have been taken care of the question always haunts us; what should I do now? There might be thousands of answers to this question given by various religions, philosophies, and cultures. But still the question always remains; what am I going to do with my time?

History seems to record that humanity, generally, has been predisposed to answer this question with the wisdom of fear. I say “wisdom” of fear, because I do not want to belittle such an important evolutionary instinct. Yet, fear is stressful and limiting. That which is not fear, that is, love, can also guide us, it is yet another evolutionary instinct that we as a species are beginning to follow more and more.

The joy of love is guiding more and more people these days. We no longer require fear to survive, as a race we have the all the capabilities to live in love with all living things on earth.

Together more choose to answer the question “What should I do with my time?” With love, over fear. I see this as a evolutionary progression to a more harmonious, peaceful, joyful life on this planet.

Evolution starts and ends within. Once one begins to love him or herself the more love is found all around this person. Love begins within, as does fear, and outwards these guiding emotions ripple the external world. When one is beaming with love for him or herself it attracts others who are the same, when one is fearful of the amazing power inside it attracts other people who are the same. As more people find the joy of love inside, the more the world becomes joyful.

Soon history will predominantly report of people following their joy, of people who are guided by love.

So “What to do?” … Love. Love yourself. Nothing to change, nothing to do. Love. Is.

The difference between being guided by love and being guided by fear.

Guided by fear

To be guided by fear is to do things because you are afraid of not doing it. When I do something out of fear I am usually persuaded by thoughts like “If I don’t do this then I might be in trouble in the future.” To be guided by fear is to always be thinking about the future, in a sense, it is to live in the future. When I am guided by fear I do things because I am afraid not to, not because I actually enjoy doing them. When I am being guided by fear I usually think like “i’ll do this, for that.”

Guided by love

To be guided by love is to do things because you love to do them for their own intrinsic value in the present moment. When I do something out of love I don’t have to be persuaded by thoughts of reward or punishment in the future, I do them because thats what I want to do right now. To be guided by love is to be present in the moment, enjoying life as it happens right now.

An example

Tonight I got a phone call asking if I wanted fly to Boston to become “trained” in an expensive proprietary development platform, something which could potentially be pretty lucrative. Instead of being guided by fear and thinking towards the future, I realized that this “training” was definitely not something that I wanted to be doing with my time, it was not something that I wanted to be doing right now. Instead of thinking about what I didn’t have and what I could have had, I looked at my present situation and realized that this payed training was not something that I actually wanted to do. If I was more aligned with fear in that moment I might have taken that opportunity thinking “I want to do this because it will give me more money in the future.” Instead in that moment I was more aligned towards love and in the present moment which totally screamed that this was not something that I was going to enjoy doing.

Basically, to be guided by love it to do something for its own sake, not for its fruits. To be guided by fear is to do something for the fruits and not for its own sake. Ultimately there is nothing wrong with being “guided” by either; love or fear. What it comes down to is how you want to live your life. Would you rather live your life doing things you don’t like for something in the future, or would you rather live your life doing what you love right now?

Today I found myself getting angry at someone who was visiting the house. I said some smart things then he said some smart things and I noticed that old familiar feeling of anger start to creep up inside. This feeling of anger made a lot of negative thoughts seem justified. Feeling angry I felt justified in having thoughts like “He shouldn’t be here” or “What is someone like that doing here?” among others. Thankfully a friend came in the door and asked if I wanted to meditate with her, I agreed noticing that it was about that time.

The power of meditation

Sitting to meditate I had to face this angry feeling head on, there was no computer, food, or conversations to distract me, it was and always is just me and me on the meditation cushion. As I sat slowly but surly the anger started to fade and with that my thoughts also began to change. The key turning point from negative thoughts spurred by anger to positive thoughts came when I realized that I create my reality, that is; that I am responsible for my reactions at all times and therefore I am responsible for the reality that is created around me.

I have the power to react to this person in whatever way I want, it just happened that my default mode at that time was to react with anger, and this was further justified and therefore spiraled off by my thoughts. The moment I realized that I have the power to create my own reality my anger was soon replaced by feelings of empowerment.

The power of taking responsibility.

By meditating I am not ignoring the problem, I am facing the problem head on. In my meditation today I became aware (yet again) that I am fully in 100% responsibility for the “problem” in the first place. In fact the “problem” really isn’t a problem at all it is more like a learning opportunity. With the strong knowing that the reality I create starts within at the thought level, I gain a tremendous amount of power. No longer was it this persons fault that I was angry it is my fault that I reacted to him in that way, even more subtle and powerful is the realization that it was my “fault” (or in other words I caused it to happen) that he and I had an interaction at all.

This is to say that everything around me, everything that is going on has been caused by me in some way or another. I am the causer of my reality, truly and fully 100% I take responsibility and therfor I have the power to change it.

Like attracts like. How to use the Law of Attraction.

Yesterday I asked someone what they wanted, and she said; “I need core group of people to help me with my projects” and this really struck me. It struck me because that has also been what I have been telling people that I need. Thats when I realized the utter simple perfection of the universe. The universe only understands what you put out, it doesn’t “think” like we think in words and symbols.

We are like magnets; we attract that which we think. By constantly putting out the thought “I need a solid crew to help with my projects” that is exactly the type of people that I have attracted into my life, those that are also looking for a group to help with their projects! The universe, or what some people call the Law of Attraction, works in what can best be described as pure emotion and feeling, very much not thought. The law of attraction can’t decode our cryptic and error prone language, it works on a much more direct, faster, and subtle form of communication that of pure feeling or knowing.

The universe only understands the energy you put out, not necessarily the language thoughts. It works off the emotion that are attached to the thoughts, the knowing, the feeling that is behind and deeper than our language. In my case, I was thinking “I need a crew of people that are dedicated this project that want to work with me” and the universe attracted to me exactly the type of people that were looking for the same exact thing! The universe acted upon the energy I was putting out, I was sending out a specific type of energy, and I was aligned with that type of people, that type of environment.

If I want to attract those people who actually are dedicated and willing to work with me on my projects, I have to BE LIKE and FEEL LIKE those people that I want to be around, or else I just attract others that are looking for the same thing. If I want to be around people who are dedicated and committed to a project then I have to be dedicated and committed to a project.

It can all be summed up as: Like attracts like.

This is a very powerful truth and has wide reaching implications. For example, if I want to be around clean people then I have to be clean myself and then I will attract that energy into my life. The beauty of it is that you can get as detailed and specific as you want, and you will attract that into your life. We are like magnets; we pull that which harmonically resonates with our current energy to us.

So you can truly have anything you want, you just have to be that, you just have to give off that energy, and it will come to you. You have to know it, you have to feel that energy and it will come to you. It doesn’t work by just thinking about what you need. Thinking about what you need just puts you in a lack mindset and ultimately only attracts others that are also thinking in terms of need. Think, feel, and be like you already are what you are looking for. If you want to be abundant be grateful for the abundance you already have. Everything you ever wanted is already within you, just put your energy there and you start attracting it in greater mass to you. Just as bigger magnets are stronger than smaller ones the more you ARE that way the more you attract that way and it can create a wonderful positive spiral towards your goals.

You are creating your universe right now, everything that you have, everything that is around you is a result of some emotion or knowing that you have had. You can either make conscious decisions to shape the direction of your reality or you can let your subconscious do the manifesting work for you. On a very deep level everything around you stems from you, you are in ultimate control, in fact you ARE the control itself.

Your destiny is in YOUR hands. You can either stand up and start being that which you want or you can give it all up to fate or “circumstance.” I urge you to take charge of your life, start creating what you want and stop believing that you don’t have control. Your life is yours! Live it! Manifest that by being that.

Like attracts like. But don’t take my word for it: what type of people do you find yourself around, what type of environment do you find yourself in? Does this fit with the type of energy/emotions/feelings/deep thoughts you put out? Are you attracting that which like you are?

The difference between thoughts of abundance, thoughts of scarcity and their relation to desire and staying present.

I have made it a practice lately to be mindful of my thoughts. To me this means watching my thoughts, not labeling them as good or bad thoughts but just noticing my thoughts and everything else that goes along with them in that moment. This practice has been very fruitful for me.

For example, I have noticed that when I have desirous thoughts I loose track of the moment (as I explained in what we want clouds what is), but even more I have come to see that my desirous thoughts create vibrations of scarcity around me. So what does vibrations of scarcity mean? Well basically, It has been my experience that the thoughts I have eventually manifest around me. It has been useful for me to classify my thoughts as those that lead to abundance and those that lead to scarcity. By watching my thoughts I have noticed that when I am thinking about what I want, what I desire, or what I don’t have, I am thinking in terms of scarcity or lack. To desire I must think about what I don’t have first, thoughts of desire are rooted in scarcity.

Thoughts of desire are rooted in scarcity. Thoughts of abundance can never come from desire. And by abundance I don’t mean thoughts of what I want that would make me abundant, because those are just thoughts of desire of scarcity again.

What I mean by thoughts of abundance are thoughts that are true to the abundance of the present moment, thoughts that have no traces of desire. Examples of thoughts of abundance include thoughts of gratitude, content thoughts, clear present thoughts. Usually thoughts of abundance don’t have much logic behind them, they tend to be self evident. Abundance thoughts are very present thoughts. Its how the world is working right now, what is going on right now. Truly abundance is, it is the moment.

Scarcity isn’t. Scarcity is always something that is yet to come, something that might come, something that the mind is afraid of, something that either was in the past or something that could come in the future. But scarcity is never now. Desire can never be fulfilled now because if it could there would be no reason desire it. Desire and lack are always something that must be satisfied sometime in the future. Desire can only be fulfilled in the future, it is the nature of desire, thoughts of this nature take us out of the present moment and send out vibrations of scarcity.

Abundance is. Abundance is what is present at this moment. Whatever is going on now is what we are abundant to. Thoughts of abundance are focused on the present moment, noticing what we have, right now. Thoughts of abundance are not rooted in desire, they are rooted in what is, in being content, in peace.

By being present we are sending out vibrations of abundance. By having thoughts of desire we loose track of the present moment and send out vibrations of scarcity by focusing on what we don’t have. We have the choice to create whatever vibration we want, we can consciously choose either vibrations of lack or vibrations of abundance. Just remember that thoughts of desire are rooted in vibrations of lack furthermore to desire is to not be present, it is to be concerned with the past or future.

To choose abundance in your life is to choose the moment, it is to let go of desires.

If your into old time underground personal development classics check this out:

The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Gracian.

But probably the best translation can be found here:

A random quote from this treasure:

Always leave something to wish for; otherwise you will be miserable from your very happiness.

–Baltasar Gracian

inspried by 43F

I really enjoyed this short story by Shel Silverstein. The Missing Piece Meets the Big O.

An oldy, but a goody. I really enjoyed it. Lately scenes from this wonderful story have been infiltrating my consciousness; each time that I think that I need something outside of myself to be happy I remember the big O who is content just as it is. I need not look outside to feel complete as wholeness is not something that is given from the outside it is something that is made from the inside out. Just like the missing piece who slowly but surly made itself more round over time by softening its edges we to can become more whole through our own inner work. If we keep it up, slowly but surly, we are bound to dwell steadily in out own contentment, undisturbed by external needs. At peace and contended with who we are and what is going on at the moment. Nothing to add and nothing to subtract.

What better way to learn to speed read than by reading personal development?

I use Spreeder to help me read (currently set at 400wpm) and Steve Pavlina for nice juicy articles. I have already read most of his “best of section”; in the time it would have taken me to read 3 articles. Steve posts some great stuff… and speed reading his stuff makes it all the better. Give it a try.

Adyashanti

Eckhart Tolle

Gangaji

Byron Katie

You have decided to go to college and you have decided to finish, all good choices. Below are some tips to help you graduate as soon as possible.

1. Figure out why you are actually in college.

To graduate from college early you must have an intense desire to finish. The more intense your desire to finish early the better the chances of you actually doing it. So sit and meditate a little bit on what you are doing in college. What the #FFFFF are you doing in college? Seriously. After awhile you might get pretty upset at what you are getting in return for your money and time, use this emotion to fuel your desire to graduate as soon as possible.

2. Use the system to your advantage.

Even though it might sometimes seem otherwise your university is actually there to serve you, not the other way around. Get to know all the rules and the loopholes around them. For example, most colleges have a cap on the amount of credits you can take per term, and most have a way around this cap. It usually takes a signature or two by an academic advisor to get all the magic access you need to be enrolled in as many units as you need to graduate well ahead of schedule. Don’t be deterred if you don’t meet the requirements for an increased class load right away. Talk to your advisors face to face and mention your recent enthusiasm (gained via tip 1) to graduate early. Persistence is your greatest ally against bureaucracy.

3. Take 2 to 3 times more classes than normal.

To graduate early you have to take more classes than the standard. As quickly as possible enroll in more classes, at least one more than normal. You must take more classes to graduate early. If its not to late in the term you can probably still enroll in a couple classes, and even if you can’t use tip 2 to get whatever permission codes you do need to enroll. I have never not gotten into a class because it was “full.” Be persistent.

4. Use your time in the most effective manner possible.

If you still watch TV or play video games you are going to have a hard time trying to graduate early. Instead of passively wasting time learn to actively engage with your surroundings all the time. Learn to hack you mind with books like Mind Performance Hacks. Read productivity blogs like LifeHacker. Increase your memory potential by learning the techniques on websites like this. Don’t let a boring lecture waste your time. Play by your own rules, if a class is going off topic or is covering things you already know look at your to-do list and do the next best thing. Keep a simple to do list on you at all times and write down everything you need to do to keep your mind as clutter free as possible. You might even consider outsourcing some of your work. Effective time management is a huge subject so just remember that whatever you are doing now, you can do it more effectively. Read my article on the number on obstacle to being in the flow. Once you open yourself up to new ways of being effective the universe will start to provide you with all the tools you need to help you graduate from college early. Watch for those synchronicities.

5. Exercise and eat the highest quality foods possible

Studies upon studies show how diet and exercise are directly related to our mental and emotional well being. Now that you have the desire to graduate early you must fuel it with invigorating daily exercise and the most organic raw super foods you can get your hands on. I highly recommend a raw food diet for the most mental clarity possible. I understand that not everyone is ready for this diet, so start where you are; instead of going for that pizza go for a fatty salad, instead of chomping down on that Snickers hit up your bag of goji berries and cacao beans. Your body and mind well reward you with more energy and more clarity.

6. Stay positive, keep trying, and have fun.

You are going to be super busy, but you are going to be having the time of your life as you speed past all your peers in the college game. Don’t worry about anything, make mistakes, they are good for you. Failure is essential for success. If you try a new memory or time management technique and it works great, if it doesn’t move on and try something new. Never give up. Hold your mistakes up with the highest degree of diligence because you can learn a lot from them. Most importantly constantly be grateful for your successes, because gratitude multiplies what one is grateful for.