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World view: why what we see has to change

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There is a truism that says the world is as we are. After all, the only world we can ever know is what we experience through our senses, our perceptions, beliefs, judgements and so on. How the world is to anyone depends on what is sometimes called their view. Due to the vacillations of the mind and the emotions, that view changes many times a day.

Our view is murky: it needs clarity

Our view of the world, however informed we think we might be, is World viewinevitably wrong. If we are driving a car, the view of the road will depend on a number of factors. The windscreen needs to be kept clear, our eyesight good and our focus and attention must be on where we are going.

Similarly, in life our view of what is in front of us must also be clear. That requires work on the heart as well as the head. Unless heart and mind are crystal clear and wide open, what we see is bound to be a distortion of reality.

Let go and let your heart melt

There are two essential areas above all else that affect how we react to the world. The first is how we see ourselves. The other is how we view other people. These are like two sides of a coin – each necessarily depends on the other.

Our heart needs to be soft and relaxed, at ease and accepting. If we are angry with the world or want to escape from it, it’s a sign we have some work to do.

Love and let live

We are not separate from the rest of the universe, but that is how we normally act and react. Our view of other people as being separate from each other and, indeed, separate from us is just as wrong. It is an ancient, entrenched view – and a false one. The cause of most of humanity’s problems lies here. We are all of the same essence, different forms but the same. If we know this, we can love and let live.

A gradual process

To change the way we see things is an enormous step. It is also the single most important and significant thing we can ever do. Because it is so enormous, we have to undertake it carefully and remain focused. There will be countless times when we feel we have fallen backwards. We mustn’t give up when that happens, otherwise we will simply “revert to type”.

Just water

When we begin, we may be surprised how stuck we are in our outlook. It can be a little frightening. It seems easier to hold onto our traditional view. But once we become aware of our rigidity, we can begin to soften it and gradually let our old beliefs melt. Then we will feel better. The world is not an insurmountable problem. Ice is, after all, just water once it has thawed.

This post based on an extract from my second book, Awakening Heart. Please share it if you feel it is relevant.

Evening workshop 5th June 2017 in Staffordshire “Pacifying the Mind”. Details here.

Related posts:

  1. Heart: why we have to listen to what it says
  2. Passion is life: why we are dead if we don’t have it
  3. Mindful living isn’t easy but it’s worth it
  4. Light lies ahead – we just have to see it

Passion is life: why we are dead if we don’t have it

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Passion is not something we get very excited about very often. Let me re-phrase that. Passion is something we don’t get excited about often enough. Why? Because without passion there is no heat, no fire and no life. A person who chooses not to be passionate about life is like smouldering coal or damp firewood. The energy is there, inside – but produces little warmth. When we are like that, we are half-asleep. Something in us is slumbering and needs waking up.

Passion is light, life and fire

When we are enthusiastic about something, it is as if we have thrown a switch. The lights come on, our eyes sparkle and our skin seems to glow. We feel good, don’t we? When we feel passionate, it is as though we have become more alive. Our speech is more animated and we have the power to motivate. Passion is good! Or is it? Is it just trouble ahead?

passion fire

Emotions are not bad

I have met many people over the years who want to become “more spiritual”. In their quest, they have come across teachings that describe emotions as being problematical. So following that logic, they decide that they need to train themselves into overcoming them. Or avoiding them. They aim to become the colourless sap of the tree instead of being the glorious effulgence of the tree itself. The error there is that if we do that, instead of allowing consciousness to flow, we tend to block it. In blocking the flow of consciousness, we also obstruct the natural flow of energy in and around us.

Love life and all is good

To have passion for life is not to let the emotions run riot. Rather, it is about letting our natural inner light do its job of illuminating what we do. And all we have to do is be interested and love. We don’t need to make a drama out of mindfulness or turn it into a tough discipline. Just loving what we do, being genuinely interested in others and our world will naturally generate mindfulness. Let the awareness expand and fill the senses. Be natural, be life, be alive. It’s so much better than being dead.

This theme will be explored further in our evening workshop Mind – The Way to Bliss on Monday 3rd April 2017. More information.

Read more on passion in life in the book Awakening Heart: The Blissful Path to Self-Realisation

Related posts:

  1. World view: why what we see has to change
  2. Light lies ahead – we just have to see it
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Doing nothing – why stopping is sometimes an absolute must

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Doing nothing goes against the grain for most of us. We are conditioned by our parents, our teachers and the society we live and work in to keep busy. So the suggestion that doing nothing may sometimes be better sounds like the work of an anarchist. Yet actually it may be the very thing we all need.

Doing nothing is lazy, right?

Doing nothing does have certain connotations. It may conjure up images of being bone idle, irresponsible anddoing nothing mind letting everyone else do the work. That is why I prefer the term “not doing”. Not doing implies stillness and mental clarity. By cultivating the wonderful art of not doing, we also cultivate our consciousness. In this context, we are working on our own development, trying to become better human beings.

Suddenly, doing nothing is doing something, after all. That may not satisfy the strong personalities I have come across from time to time. They assert that meditation and mindfulness are pure self-indulgence. Actually, such practices require an enormous amount of self-discipline and, if done correctly, naturally lead to selflessness.

But I feel guilty if I’m not busy

That’s understandable. To a great extent, we are conditioned that way. There has to be work otherwise the infrastructure of society would collapse. When we are young, we have so much energy that we need work and education to channel it. As adults, we may need to work to support ourselves and our families, if we have them. The challenges of work help us to grow as individuals, too.

Not doing, or doing nothing, doesn’t mean giving up work. It means changing our attitude towards it, and to life in general. It has to do with how we are inside rather than how we appear to the world at large.

doing nothing mind machineSo what do I need to change?

The mind is a bit like a machine. It just keeps going. It’s a noisy contraption that shakes and rattles and often threatens to break down. Now and again, it produces something useful but most of the time it steals our natural presence to life. Instead of enjoying life with full and blissful awareness, we focus on the demands this heat-producing conglomeration makes on us. And we don’t need to put up with it.

Doing nothing is letting go

As long as we are slaves to the mind, inner peace will elude us. Yet the mind is largely our own creation. Oddly, you cannot find your mind but you can find your inherent awareness. Our natural awareness or consciousness is who we are. Whenever we succumb to the demands of the ego-created mind, our true nature – who-we-are – is impossible to find. So we have to learn to let go.

How to come back to yourself

Letting go means that when we feel driven to do something – to check our messages, for example – we take a conscious breath instead. Feel the sensation of the flow of the breath. Feel the impulse that creates the desire to go to our phone, tablet or computer. Feel the sensations of not doing, of not responding to the impulse. Breathe into them. Sometimes the impulse will dissolve by itself. At other times, we may still feel the urge to act. That’s okay.

The key is not to fight but to notice. In noticing, we start to become the observer. Little by little, we will experience greater clarity. In that clarity, we simply are.

Doing nothing – then acting

The mind machine cannot exist by itself; it needs space in which to operate. If we notice the space, we are not caught up in what we see. Our thinking becomes clearer and, in stillness, we are safe to speak or act, or indeed to do nothing. From this, we develop the skill of right action and right speech. Then life becomes easier and more fulfilling.

In this way, we train ourselves to become happier and more effective human beings. We need to work at it but we can do it. The effects can be tremendous. Is that lazy? I don’t think so.

The book The Art of Not Doing is available here.

You can listen to a podcast on this subject with me as a guest of Paul Kerzner of Arizona, USA.

The evening workshop Mind: The Way to Bliss is on Monday 3rd April 2017. More information

Related posts:

  1. Bliss: why it is good for health, as well as your mind
  2. Stillness and clarity: here’s how they can save your life
  3. Life: sometimes we can forget why we’re here
  4. Calm the mind in a crazy world

Be happier in 7 easy steps

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Be happier and bring some lightness into this crazy world! Finding and increasing happiness is a fundamentalbe happier smile human desire. In fact we could say that being happier is part of our life’s purpose. We have physical requirements – food, shelter and so on. Then there are emotional needs such as feeling loved, nurtured and appreciated. Happiness is more than the satisfaction of these needs. It may include them but essentially is a state of mind. We may be loved and well but can still be unhappy and feel sorry for ourselves.

Be happier: improve the mind

Improving the mind is essential. This doesn’t mean we have to study a foreign language or spend our leisure time doing endless brain exercises. It means seeing ourselves, and consequently others, in a different light. Before we can do that, our mind has to become clearer. But how?

A major problem most of us have is that we think too much. Our minds are cluttered and that is uncomfortable. To avoid that discomfort, we think about something else. Let’s book a holiday. Or buy this. Or eat some chocolate. Any dream will do. Then the mind starts getting busy again and we are back on the treadmill.

The mind needs to be calmer. We need to become calmer. That’s easier said than done, you may say, and you’d be right. But it’s not that difficult. Not really. We just need to ease our foot off the accelerator (that’s the gas, if you’re on the other side of the pond). Apply a little gentle pressure to the brake. In fact, take a break. Just slow down and allow your mind to be at ease.

Once is never enough

To improve our quality of life, there needs to be more than just an occasional top-up of greater calmness. There how to be happierhas to be some adjustment to how we approach life. Learning how to be happier is a process of forming new habits and dropping some old ones.

Seven easy things that will increase your happiness

  1. Slow down your activity. Although it is not possible for many of us to slow down all our activity, it is surprising how much we can adjust and actually perform what we have to do better simply by slowing down. Sometimes do something deliberately slowly, in slow-motion almost, and this will help to break the habit of doing everything at a fast pace.
  2. Slow down your thought processes. Rapid-fire thinking is not helpful because it agitates the subtle energies and creates tension in the body. Try to think calmly and clearly and on one thing at a time.
  3. Be aware of the breath as much as possible, even in activity.This will help to slow the mind down and it will increase awareness. This doesn’t mean we should concentrate on the breath – simply be aware of it in the background.
  4. Live in the present moment and do whatever is in hand with full awareness. If you are eating, for example, be fully aware of what you are chewing and not thinking about the next mouthful, the next course or what you have to do next. If you are listening, listen fully and give the other person your full attention without the mind wandering. If you are walking, enjoy feeling your steps.
  5. Smile. Smiling releases endorphins in the brain, increases the sense of well-being and helps to promote stillness. Just a light smile is enough – we don’t have to walk round with a fixed grin!
  6. Ensure you have some time each day by yourself. For some people, that may not seem so easy but if we are constantly in the company of others, it drains the energy and keeps the mind over-stimulated.
  7. Do something that you feel good about each day. This helps build self-esteem and calms the mind.

Inside not outside

Remember that quality of life depends not so much on external factors but on how we feel inside. In discovering how to be happier, the aim is not to become artificially still by cutting ourselves off from everything. The emphasis is gradually to bring more and more stillness into what we do. If we can achieve that, we will begin to touch the deeper parts of our being. Life rises from still waters rather than noisy, shallow rapids. We have more to offer life. In return, life offers so much. Happiness is restored.

From The Great Little Book of Happiness

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Related posts:

  1. Criticism: 3 reasons it’s bad for your wellbeing
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  4. Insight: 3 reasons you need this mind-power

Guilt – why it robs us of self-esteem

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“Guilt is a wasted emotion,” it has often been said, yet most of us have seeds of guilt lurking somewhere in our psyche. Guilt can seriously harm our self-esteem and confidence. Our work and relationships can suffer because we hold back our energy and our presence. This source of self-flagellation needs rooting out and the process is called self-forgiveness.

To forgive ourselves doesn’t mean not to have a conscience; ethical speech and conduct (and, indeed, thinking) are vital aspects of the path of self-development. The survival of the human race depends on moral behaviour. Self-forgiveness means letting go of harmful feelings of guilt that prevent us from being happy and realising our full potential.

GuiltMoreover, if we cannot let go of guilt within ourselves, we cannot truly and completely forgive others. If we resent something within our own make-up, there are going to be things we will resent in others. So it is not self-indulgent to forgive ourselves – quite the opposite. To put it another way, are cultivating a sense of self-acceptance.

Our starting point is to build up our self esteem. We don’t need to analyse where we think we are failing because that’s focusing on the negative. We simply start by building up a positive picture.

Here is a powerful exercise for building up self-esteem. Don’t underestimate it – it works. Find a place to sit quietly on your own and allow yourself a comfortable five minutes or a little longer if you wish:

Releasing ourselves from guilt – a meditation for building self-esteem

  • Visualise yourself seated in a totally empty room. Say to yourself, “I am.” This is a positive statement. Repeat it a few times: “I am.”
  • Imagine someone coming into the room and placing a gift – some flowers, say – at your feet. Hear this person say, “This gift is for you because you are who you are.”
  • Embrace your visitor. It is yourself – your soul, your spirit, your higher, wise self.
  • See someone else come into the room. This second visitor places a golden bowl at your feet and says, “This chalice is for you. It holds all opportunities in life and is always full.”
  • Pick up the bowl and embrace it. It is the sum total of all past and future actions.
  • Feel yourself smiling inside and say to yourself, “I welcome all that comes because I am.” As you do this, see yourself fill with light and be at ease.

This technique could be done once a day for a week and then whenever there is a feeling of self-doubt. By embracing our whole self and our past and future actions, we forgive everything about ourselves. In other words we accept who we are. In energy terms, this can have a very profound effect.

Guilt – putting things right

Sometimes, though, there can be something that really bothers us.  If we have harmed somebody, spoken out of turn, acted unjustly, omitted to do something or whatever it happens to be, we should use any opportunity we can to apologise or to put things right. If that is not possible or if no-one else is involved, we can use the following method:

  • Visualise the person (or group) you have harmed or wronged, or if no-one else is involved, you should visualise your guide, teacher or other higher being for whom you have respect and loyalty. Simply explain yourself truly and honestly  and say, “I am truly sorry.”
  • Then see yourself attempting to put things right and making amends by bringing the action back to yourself or “undoing” the action.

This method is very simple but its effect can be very deep indeed. Sometimes it may need to be done more than once. It all depends to what extent the sense of guilt has been ingrained but it is better to do it once and see how our feelings are affected over a period of time than to keep repeating it. Many of these techniques are like taking a medicine – it is important to allow time for healing to take place before taking another dose.

More on this in The Great Little Book of Happiness. This article is an adaptation of an extract from Chapter 2.

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Related posts:

  1. Inner peace and how to find it
  2. Why is happiness such a problem?
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  4. To be free, understand cause and effect