Light vs. Darkness

The man who dares to challenge the false power of a dark condition will not fail to win. Even a small effort gives him a glimpse of alternatives, shows him the difference between his pain and his freedom from it. He is like a man in a dark cavern who finds a small candle to light. That small candle will not illuminate the whole cave, but it gives him a basis for comparison. He sees, ever so dimly, that there is an alternative to darkness. Having seen that much, he eagerly lights another candle and an other and another, until he finds himself in the bright light. He is no longer afraid of the cavern because he now sees and understands it.

~Vernon Howard

External vs. Internal

Don't you suspect, and it's a right suspicion, that this world has nothing right to give you? Suspicion! It ought to be a thundering conviction with you because it never has given you any thing worthwhile, anything lasting. It all about what you give yourself!

Hurt Feelings

Hurt feelings play an extremely important role with both self-working and non-working people, but in different ways. To the non-working person, hurt feelings are unconscious and they are resented. Since these states are psychologically unproductive, they keep alive the habit of hurt feelings. The self-working person tries to make hurt feelings conscious, for he knows this will end them. Far from resenting injured feelings, he happily realizes that any negative state can be used for its own destruction.

~Vernon Howard

Approval

You want their approval because you are not pleased with yourself.

Stop it for good. Now.

One of the nicest experiences a human being can ever have is when he starts with a little bit of a sincere intention to come on back home, and right as he's walking and getting closer and closer, he can feel his anxieties and his despair and his agony gradually, gradually fade away.

Fear Of Losing Something

Consciously risk the loss of something before losing it and you will lose the fear of losing it.

Mental Anguish

Mental anguish has captured the minds of the miserable multitudes. All are under its tyranny, and they will continue to suffer dreadfully and needlessly until they learn the secrets of escape from that vast prisoner-of-war camp inside their own minds. And I'm going to give you a first step right now.

Oh, how many suffer from mental anguish? You suffer from it because you continue to do the wrong thing when it jumps up and grabs you and starts to wrestle you down to the mat. The first wrong thing you do is that you do not separate yourself from what has been masquerading as part of your nature. The anguish is not a part of you, but you don't know this. It's not clear in your mind yet. And so it's able to leap into the ring and grapple with you.

You also, as a second failure, do not make an effort - a deliberate, strong, instantaneous effort to step aside to dodge the attack when you see it coming. Instead of jumping aside, you grapple with it, and it gets you every time. I'm exposing now great mysteries, marvelous secrets of spiritual success, by which you can do something different than you have always done before and come out a winner.

You win by not wrestling, not grappling, not grabbing the opponent and trying to pin him down to the mat.

~Vernon Howard

Motto

If I know who and what I am, no one can tell me who and what I am not!

Biggest Fear Humans Have

To be alive is the biggest fear humans have. Death is not the biggest fear we have; the biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive – the risk to be alive and express what we really are. We have learned to live our life trying to satisfy other people’s demands. We have learned to live by other people’s points of view because of the fear of not being accepted and of not being good enough for someone else.

Mind-Centered Success

Relinquishing control over the external aspects of our lives and turning our focus inward helps us understand where our true successes lie. Working hard and setting an intention to be the best doesn’t always happen as expected since life is full of the unexpected (impermanence). When we learn to control our minds, however, we not only become aware of this but we also are not sidetracked by the unforeseen. Our minds keep us steady amidst life’s ever-changing current (non-clinging). By gaining power over your thoughts, you will achieve success by remaining steady and constant enough to cope with everything that arises

Stop Negative Thinking For Good

Perhaps the most important step in quitting the habit of complaining is to disconnect the undesirable behavior from your identity. A common mistake chronic complainers make is to self-identify with the negative thoughts running through their minds. Such a person might admit, “I know I’m responsible for my thoughts, but I don’t know how to stop myself from thinking negatively so often.” That seems like a step in the right direction, and to a certain degree it is, but it’s also a trap. It’s good to take responsibility for your thoughts, but you don’t want to identify with those thoughts to the point you end up blaming yourself and feeling even worse.

A better statement might be, “I recognize these negative thoughts going through my mind. But those thoughts are not me. As I raise my awareness, I can replace those thoughts with positive alternatives.” You have the power to recondition your thoughts, but the trick is to keep your consciousness out of the quagmire of blame. Realize that while these thoughts are flowing through your mind, they are not you. You are the conscious conduit through which they flow.

Mental conditioning

Although your thoughts are not you, if you repeat the same thoughts over and over again, they will condition your mind to a large extent. It’s almost accurate to say that we become our dominant thoughts, but I think that’s taking it a bit too far.

Consider how the foods you eat condition your body. You aren’t really going to become the next meal you eat, but that meal is going to influence your physiology, and if you keep eating the same meals over and over, they’ll have a major impact on your body over time. Your body will crave and expect those same foods. However, your body remains separate and distinct from the foods you eat, and you’re still free to change what you eat, which will gradually recondition your physiology in accordance with the new inputs.

This is why negative thinking is so addictive. If you keep holding negative thoughts, you condition your mind to expect and even crave those continued inputs. Your neurons will even learn to predict the reoccurrence of negative stimuli. You’ll practically become a negativity magnet.

The trap of negative thinking

This is a tough situation to escape because it’s self-perpetuating, as anyone stuck in negative thinking knows all too well. Your negative experiences feed your negative expectations, which then attract new negative experiences.

In truth most people who enter this pattern never escape it in their entire lives. It’s just that difficult to escape. Even as they rail against their own negativity, they unknowingly perpetuate it by continuing to identify with it. If you beat yourself up for being too negative, you’re simply reinforcing the pattern, not breaking out of it.

I think most people who are stuck in this trap will remain stuck until they experience an elevation in their consciousness. They have to recognize that they’re trapped and that continuing to fight their own negativity while still identifying with it is a battle that can never be won. Think about it. If beating yourself up for being too whiny was going to work, wouldn’t it have worked a long time ago? Are you any closer to a solution for all the effort you’ve invested in this plan of attack?

Consequently, the solution I like best is to stop fighting and surrender. Instead of resisting the negativity head-on, acknowledge and accept its presence. This will actually have the effect of raising your consciousness.

Overcoming negativity

You can actually learn to embrace the negative thoughts running through your head and thereby transcend them. Allow them to be, but don’t identify with them because those thoughts are not you. Begin to interact with them like an observer.

It’s been said that the mind is like a hyperactive monkey. The more you fight with the monkey, the more hyper it becomes. So instead just relax and observe the monkey until it wears itself out.

Recognize also that this is the very reason you’re here, living out your current life as a human being. Your reason for being here is to develop your consciousness. If you’re mired in negativity, your job is to develop your consciousness to the point where you can learn to stay focused on what you want, to create positively instead of destructively. It may take you more than a lifetime to accomplish that, and that’s OK. Your life is always reflecting back to you the contents of your consciousness. If you don’t like what you’re experiencing, that’s because your skill at conscious creation remains underdeveloped. That’s not a problem though because you’re here to develop it. You’re experiencing exactly what you’re supposed to be experiencing so you can learn.

Conscious creation

If you need a few more lifetimes to work through your negativity, you’re free to take your time. Conscious creation is a big responsibility, and maybe you don’t feel ready for it yet. So until then you’re going to perpetuate the pattern of negative thinking to keep yourself away from that realization. You must admit that the idea of being the primary creator of everything in your current reality is a bit daunting. What are you going to make of your life? What if you screw up? What if you make a big mess of everything? What if you try your best and fail? Those self-doubts will keep you in a pattern of negativity as a way of avoiding that responsibility.

Unfortunately, this escapism has consequences. The only way true creators can deny responsibility for their creations is to buy into the illusion that they aren’t really creating any of it. This means you have to turn your own creative energy against yourself. You’re like a god using his powers to become powerless. You use your strength to make yourself weak.

The reason you may be stuck in a negative thought pattern right now is that at some point, you chose it. You figured the alternative of accepting full responsibility for everything in your reality would be worse. It’s too much to handle. So you turned your own thoughts against yourself to avoid that awesome responsibility. And you’ll continue to remain in a negative manifestation pattern until you’re ready to start accepting some of that responsibility back onto your plate.

Negativity needn’t be a permanent condition. You still have the freedom to choose otherwise. In practice this realization normally happens in layers of unfolding awareness. You begin to accept and embrace more and more responsibility for your life.

Assuming total responsibility

You see… the real solution to complaining is responsibility. You must say to the universe (and mean it), “I want to accept more responsibility for everything in my experience.”

Here are some examples of what I mean by accepting responsibility:

• If I’m unhappy, it’s because I’m creating it.
• If there’s a problem in the world that bothers me, I’m responsible for fixing it.
• If someone is in need, I’m responsible for helping them.
• If I want something, it’s up to me to achieve it.
• If I want certain people in my life, I must attract and invite them to be with me.
• If I don’t like my present circumstances, I must end them.

On the flip side, it may also help to take responsibility for all the good in your life. The good stuff didn’t just happen to you. You created it. Well done.

Pat yourself on the back for what you like, but don’t feel you must pretend to enjoy what you clearly don’t like. But do accept responsibility for all of it… to the extent you’re ready to do so.

Complaining is the denial of responsibility. And blame is just another way of excusing yourself from being responsible. But this denial still wields its own creative power.

Conscious creation is indeed an awesome responsibility. But in my opinion it’s the best part of being human. There’s just no substitute for creating a life of joy, even if it requires taking responsibility for all the unwanted junk you’ve manifested up to this point.

When you catch yourself complaining, stop and ask yourself if you want to continue to deny responsibility for your reality or to allow a bit more responsibility back onto your plate. Maybe you’re ready to assume more responsibility, and maybe you aren’t, but do your best to make that decision consciously. Do you want sympathy for creating what you don’t want, or do you want congratulations for creating what you do want?

~ Steve Pavlina

Why Do We Resist Good?

What keeps us from doing the things we know will bring peace, joy, and wellbeing? Why do we chose to eat foods that are unhealthy for our bodies or put off exercising until tomorrow? Why do we resist good? Each moment throughout the day we make choices. Our choices either propels us towards the life we want or repel us to experiences and outcomes that we do not want.

Humans are habitual creatures. Our thought patterns are repetitive unless we consciously make an effort to change them. It has been said that "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results." To make lasting changes, we must change our thinking. And as we change or thinking, we change our behaviors. And as we change our behaviors, we change our lives. When we are not aware of our thoughts and deepest beliefs, or do not challenge them, our results occur through default. In other words, when our thoughts are habitual and not conscious, then we have outcomes that are not conscious and often not desirable. Change your thinking....change your life.

A helpful way to become more conscious of your thinking, is to become aware of what you are feeling. If you are feeling bad, sad, angry, lonely, afraid...then most likely you are thinking thoughts that provoke this feeling. When you feel joy, peace, contentment, gratitude...most likely you are thinking about things that provoke this feeling. Have you ever noticed, that when you are feeling bad, that simply sitting by a fireplace and watching the flames dance, feeling their comfort and warmth helps to change your mood? Or, taking a walk in nature helps lift your spirit? Nothing has changed in your life, except your focus and thoughts. To experience deep peace, contentment, joy and safety requires us to pay attention to our feelings and thoughts, and gently shift back to more pleasant thinking. This is a process, and often requires practice, support, journaling, prayer, and meditation. However, since we are habitual creatures, the more we practice changing our thinking, the more it becomes integrated in our lives and our lives change for the better.

Today I affirm: I focus my thoughts on good. I live in the present moment, knowing that I am safe.

Some Affirmations

• Everything in my life works perfectly
• It’s easy to let go and let my life unfold
• I let life happen and it’s wonderful
• I move freely and with ease
• I have enough time
• Time is on my side
• I take care of myself
• I feel great, I love my life
• I know how to relax, I am relaxed
• All parts of my life flow freely and easily
• I live in the present moment
• I trust my future to unfold beautifully
• I let go of control
• I live with ease, I am fulfilled
• I feel connected to the flow of love in my life
• I get all the help I need
• I trust my inner guidance to show me the way
• Everything in my life works with cooperation
• I trust the process of life
• All details take care of themselves
• I’m confident around people.
• I’m myself around people.
• No one can shake my confidence.
• People enjoy my company and personality.
• I emit positive vibes.
• I have positive energy.
• I’m a happy person.
• I am relaxed in conversations.
• I enjoy talking with new people.
• People can see the confidence coming forth from me.
• I dismiss negative feelings, and don’t let them sway my confidence.
• My jokes are funny.
• I’m relaxed and carefree.
• I have interesting things to say.
• I’m a great listener.
• I’m a great conversationalist.
• I walk and move with confidence.

Stillness

"Who is there that can make muddy water clear?
But if allowed to remain still, it will gradually become clear of itself."

~Lao Tzu

Manifestation, Presence and Love

I. Everything Is Manifestation

Dear Teacher, with body, speech, and mind in perfect oneness, I touch the Earth before you, the one who is truly and fully awakened, to express my regret for my unskillful and mistaken habits of thought.

Dear Teacher, you have taught that people in the world are generally caught in ideas of being and nonbeing, permanence and annihilation. I know that the idea of an undying self is a wrong view, and I am practicing to look deeply to see that annihilation is also a wrong view. Permanence and annihilation are both extremes. You have taught me that if I am caught in either of these two extremes, I suffer. As part of my daily practice, I shall make an effort to make sure that everything around me is impermanent, but at the same time not subject to annihilation. With the clear understanding of impermanence, I see that nothing can be said to be a separate self-entity. Everything is a wonderful manifestation which does not have its own separate reality or its own separate nature. This manifests because that manifests, and that manifests because this manifests. This is present in that and that is present in this.

Dear Teacher, I shall listen to your advice and look deeply into impermanence, interdependence, emptiness, and interbeing, in order to arrive at the deep realization that all that exists has the nature of no birth and no death, no coming and no going, no being and no nonbeing, no permanence and no annihilation. Dear Teacher, you have opened the door of no birth for us. I only need to follow you and enter that door. I know that the highest aim of a practitioner is to realize the nature of no birth and no death and attain the greatest freedom. You have been so compassionate to teach us this. Yet, I have wasted much precious time following a worldly career, looking for words of praise, profit, and position. I know I can do better.

II. Living in the Present

Dear Teacher, I recognize my deep habit energy of forgetfulness. I often allow my mind to think about the past, so that I drown in sorrow and regret. This has caused me to lose so many opportunities to be in touch with the wonderful things of life present only in this moment. I know there are many of us whose past has become our prison. Our time is spent complaining or regretting what we have lost. This robs us of the opportunity to be in touch with the refreshing, beautiful, and wonderful things that could nourish and transform us in the present moment. We are not able to be in touch with the blue sky, the white clouds, the green willow, the yellow flowers, the sound of the wind in the pine trees, the sound of the running brook, the sound of the singing birds, and the sound of the laughing children in the early morning sunlight. We are also not able to be in touch with the wonderful things in our own selves.

We are unable to see that our two eyes are two precious jewels. When we open our eyes we can be in touch with the world of ten thousand different colors and forms. We do not recognize that our two ears are two wonderful sense organs. If we were to listen attentively with these two ears, we would hear the soft rustling of the wind in the branches of the pine, the twittering of the golden oriole or the sound of the rising tide as it plays its compelling music on the seashore in the early morning. Our hearts, lungs, brains, as well as our capacity to feel, to think and observe are also wonders of life. The glass of clear water or golden orange juice in our hands is also a wonder of life. In spite of this I am often unable to be in touch with the way life is manifesting in the present moment, because I do not practice mindful breathing and mindful walking to return to the present moment.

III. Nourishing Love and Understanding

Dear Teacher, you have taught me not to regret the past or lose myself in anxiety and fear about the future. Around me I see many of us who are losing ourselves in our worries and fears. This anxiety stops us from being able to dwell peacefully and live deeply in the present moment. I have the right and the ability to make plans for the future, but it is not necessary to lose myself in my worries about it. In reality, I know that the future is made of the present moment. When I live the present moment deeply and I only think, speak, and do what can bring more understanding, love, peace, harmony, and freedom into the present situation, then I have already done everything that I can to lay the foundation for a bright future.

The direction in which tomorrow's world will go and whether my descendants will have a chance to live happily and freely or not depends on how I live the present moment. To ensure a happy and peaceful future for my descendants I shall practice living simply, nourishing my heart and mind of understanding and love, and living in harmony with all those around me as true sisters and brothers in a spiritual family. If I continue to run after power, fame, riches, and authority I shall not have time to live peacefully and freely. I shall also continue to exploit unnecessarily the resources of our planet Earth, destroying the environment and bringing about strife and hatred in the world. This is not a positive way ahead for myself, for the environment, or for future generations.

Dear Teacher, may I devote my life to nourishing a clear awareness of myself and my environment in every moment in order to continue your awakened way of looking and acting in the world. This is the noblest way of living.

СЕРДЦЕ МЫШОНКА

Древняя индийская сказка рассказывает об одном мышонке, который находился в постоянном стрессе -- он боялся попасть в лапы кошке. Волшебник пожалел мышонка и превратил его в кошку. Но тогда он стал бояться собак. Волшебник превратил его в собаку. Но тогда он стал бояться пантеры. Волшебник превратил его в пантеру. Но тогда он стал очень бояться охотников. И тут волшебник сдался. Он опять превратил его в мышонка, сказав при этом: "Ничто тебе не поможет, ибо у тебя сердце мышонка

СМЕРТЬ И СТРАХ

Однажды смерть направлялась в Дамаск. В пустыне она повстречалась с путником. Куда торопишься? -- спросил ее путник. В Дамаск. Хочу забрать с собой тысячу жизней. На обратном пути смерть вновь проходила мимо путника. Ты же говорила, что заберешь одну тысячу жизней, а забрала пятьдесят тысяч, -- сказал ей путник. Нет, -- ответила смерть, -- я забрала одну тысячу. Остальных забрал страх.

Люди видят не то, что происходит в действительности. Они видят то, что их учили видеть.

Greed, Anger, Infatuation, Arrogance and Suspicion

Content and Satisfaction Reduces Greed.

Compassion and Joy Dilutes Anger.

Wisdom and Liberation Releases Infatuation.

Respect and Humility Trims Arrogance.

Resonating with Master Eradicates Suspicion.

Dont Sweat The Small Stuff

• Catch yourself when you fall into your habit of insisting that things should be other than they are. Gently remind yourself that life is okay the way it is, right now. In the absence of your judgment, everything would be fine. As you begin to eliminate your need for perfection in all areas of your life, you'll begin to discover the perfection in life itself.

• Sometimes you have to accept things as the way they are. You can't always 'win'.

• Fearful, frantic thinking takes an enormous amount of energy and drains the creativity and motivation from our lives. When you are fearful or frantic, you literally immobilize yourself from your greatest potential, not to mention enjoyment. Any success that you do have is despite your fear, not because of it. When you have what you want (inner peace), you are less distracted by your wants, needs, desires, and concerns. It's thus easier to concentrate, focus, achieve your goals, and to give back to others.

• Be aware of how quickly your negative and insecure thinking can spiral out of control. Have you ever noticed how uptight you feel when you're caught in your thinking? And, to top it off, the more absorbed you get in the details of whatever is upsetting you, the worse you feel. One thought leads to another, and yet another, until at some point you become incredibly agitated. The sooner you catch yourself in the act of building your mental snowball, the easier it is to stop. You stop your train of thought before it has a chance to get going.

• Nothing helps us build our perspective more than developing compassion for others. It involves the willingness to put yourself in someone else's shoes, to take the focus off yourself and to imagine what it's like to be in someone else's predicament.

• Practice deep breathing. Stop, sit quietly for a few minutes, clear your mind, and take several deep, slow, calming breaths. Inhale deeply on a slow count of four, hold it for a second or two, and then exhale on a slow count of four.

• Regardless of who you are or what you do, however, remember that nothing is more important than your sense of happiness and inner peace and that of your loved ones. If you're obsessed with getting everything done, you'll never have a sense of well-being! In reality, almost everything can wait. Very little in our work lives truly falls into the "emergency" category. If you stay focused on your work, it will all get done in due time. Don't waste any more precious moments of your life regretting the inevitable.

• When you hurry someone along, interrupt someone, or finish his or her sentence, you have to keep track not only of your own thoughts but of those of the person you are interrupting as well. This tendency (which, by the way, is extremely common in busy people), encourages both parties to speed up their speech and their thinking. This, in turn, makes both people nervous, irritable, and annoyed. It's downright exhausting. It's also the cause of many arguments, because if there's one thing almost everyone resents, it's someone who doesn't listen to what they are saying.

• While all acts of kindness are inherently wonderful, there is something even more magical about doing something thoughtful but mentioning it to no one, ever. You always feel good when you give to others. Rather than diluting the positive feelings by telling others about your own kindness, by keeping it to yourself you get to retain all the positive feelings.

• Although it's a difficult habit to break, it's not only enjoyable but actually peaceful to have the quiet confidence to be able to surrender your need for attention and instead share in the joy of someone else's glory

• Without question, many of us have mastered the neurotic art of spending much of our lives worrying about a variety of things--all at once. We allow past problems and future concerns to dominate our present moments, so much so that we end up anxious, frustrated, depressed, and hopeless. To combat fear, the best strategy is to learn to bring your attention back to the present.

• Your job is to try to determine what the people in your life are tying to teach you. You'll find that if you do this, you'll be far less annoyed, bothered, and frustrated by the actions and imperfections of other people. You can actually get yourself in the habit of approaching life in this manner and, if you do, you'll be glad you did.

• Being right, defending our positions takes an enormous amount of mental energy and often alienates us from the people in our lives. Needing to be right--or needing someone else to be wrong--encourages others to become defensive, and puts pressure on us to keep defending. Yet, many of us (me too, at times) spend a great deal of time and energy attempting to prove (or point out) that we are right--and/or others are wrong. A wonderful, heartfelt strategy for becoming more peaceful and loving is to practice allowing others the joy of being right--give them the glory. Stop correcting. As hard as it may be to change this habit, it's worth any effort and practice it takes. The people in your life will become less defensive and more loving.

• The more patient you are, the more accepting you will be of what is, rather than insisting that life to be exactly as you would like it to be. Without patience, life is extremely frustrating. You are easily annoyed, bothered, and irritated. Patience adds a dimension of ease and acceptance to your life. It's essential for inner peace. Becoming more patient involves opening your heart to the present moment, even if you don't like it. If you are stuck in a traffic jam, late for an appointment, opening to the moment would mean catching yourself building a mental snowball before your thinking got out of hand and gently reminding yourself to relax. It might also be a good time to breathe as well as an opportunity to remind yourself that, in the bigger scheme of things, being late is "small stuff."

• "Is this situation really as important as I'm making it out to be?" Once in a great while it may be--but a vast majority of the time, it simply isn't. Chances are a year from now you aren't going to care.

• One of the mistakes many of us make is that we feel sorry for ourselves, or for others, thinking that life should be fair, or that someday it will be. It's not and it won't. When we make this mistake we tend to spend a lot of time wallowing and/or complaining about what's wrong with life. We commiserate with others, discussing the injustices of life. One of the nice things about surrendering to the fact that life isn't fair is that it keeps us from feeling sorry for ourselves by encouraging us to do the very best we can with what we have. We know it's not "life's job" to make everything perfect, it's our own challenge.

• You may have thoughts about some unresolved problem or something you regret or perhaps someone that you hurt or someone who has hurt you. Allow these thoughts to come, linger a while, and then watch them disappear. See them for what they are-just more thoughts. They are not you. You are permanent, unchanging and always at peace. They are ripples on the pond and if you know anything about ripples, you should know that they come and they go. They move outwards until they are gone.

~Richard Carlson

Nothing is more important than your sense of happiness and inner peace and that of your loved ones.

Repeat it to yourself over and over and over again!

~Richard Calson

“Circumstances—what are circumstances? I make circumstances.”

~Napoleon

To Be A Warrior

“A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war: wide-awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. Going to knowledge or going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and whoever makes it might never live to regret it.”

“A rule of thumb for a warrior is that he makes his decisions so carefully that nothing that may happen as a result of them can surprise him, much less drain his power.”

“A warrior acts as if he knows what he is doing, when in effect he knows nothing.”

“A warrior chooses a path with heart, any path with heart, and follows it; and then he rejoices and laughs. He knows because he sees that his life will be over altogether too soon. He sees that nothing is more important than anything else.”

“A warrior considers himself already dead, so there is nothing to lose. The worst has already happened to him, therefore he's clear and calm; judging him by his acts or by his words, one would never suspect that he has witnessed everything.”

“A warrior doesn't know remorse for anything he has done, because to isolate one's acts as being mean, or ugly, or evil is to place an unwarranted importance on the self.”

“A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions.”

“A warrior lives by acting, not by thinking about acting, nor by thinking about what he will think when he has finished acting.”

“A warrior must cultivate the feeling that he has everything needed for the extravagant journey that is his life. What counts for a warrior is being alive. Life in itself is sufficient, self-explanatory and complete. Therefore, one may say without being presumptuous that the experience of experiences is being alive.”

“A warrior must learn to make every act count, since he is going to be here in this world for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.”

“A warrior never worries about his fear.”

“A warrior seeks to act rather than talk.”

“A warrior takes responsibility for his acts, for the most trivial of acts. An average man acts out his thoughts, and never takes responsibility for what he does.”

“A warrior thinks of death when things become unclear. The idea of death is the only thing that tempers our spirit.”

“A warrior-hunter knows that his death is waiting, and the very act he is performing now may well be his last battle on earth. He calls it a battle because it is a struggle. Most people move from act to act without any struggle or thought. A warrior-hunter, on the contrary, assesses every act; and since he has intimate knowledge of his death, he proceeds judiciously, as if every act were his last battle. Only a fool would fail to notice advantage a warrior-hunter has over his fellow men. A warrior-hunter gives his last battle its due respect. It's only natural that his last act on earth should be the best of himself. It's pleasurable that way. It dulls the edge of his fright.”

“All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. However, a path without a heart is never enjoyable. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy—it does not make a warrior work at liking it; it makes for a joyful journey; as long as a man follows it, he is one with it.”

“An average man is too concerned with liking people or with being liked himself. A warrior likes, that's all. He likes whatever or whomever he wants, for the hell of it.”

“Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore, a warrior must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if he feels that he should not follow it, he must not stay with it under any conditions. His decision to keep on that path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. He must look at every path closely and deliberately. There is a question that a warrior has to ask, mandatorily: 'Does this path have a heart?'”

“Death is our eternal companion. It is always to our left, an arm's length behind us. Death is the only wise adviser that a warrior has. Whenever he feels that everything is going wrong and he's about to be annihilated, he can turn to his death and ask if that is so. His death will tell him that he is wrong, that nothing really matters outside its touch. His death will tell him, I haven't touched you yet.'”

“Feeling important makes one heavy, clumsy and vain. To be a warrior one needs to be light and fluid.”

“For a warrior, to be inaccessible means that he touches the world around him sparingly. And above all, he deliberately avoids exhausting himself and others. He doesn't use and squeeze people until they have shriveled to nothing, especially the people he loves.”

“If a warrior is to succeed at anything, the success must come gently, with a great deal of effort but with no stress or obsession.”

“If his spirit is distorted he should simply fix it—purge it, make it perfect—because there is no other task in our entire lives which is more worthwhile…To seek the perfection of the warrior's spirit is the only task worthy of our temporariness, our manhood.”

“Intent is not a thought, or an object, or a wish. Intent is what can make a man succeed when his thoughts tell him that he is defeated. It operates in spite of the warrior's indulgence. Intent is what makes him invulnerable. Intent is what sends a shaman through a wall, through space, to infinity.”

“It doesn't matter how one was brought up. What determines the way one does anything is personal power.”

“Nothing in this world is a gift. Whatever must be learned must be learned the hard way.”

“Once a man worries, he clings to anything out of desperation; and once he clings he is bound to get exhausted or to exhaust whomever or whatever he is clinging to. A warrior-hunter, on the other hand, knows he will lure game into his traps over and over again, so he doesn't worry.”

“Only as a warrior can one withstand the path of knowledge. A warrior cannot complain or regret anything. His life is an endless challenge, and challenges cannot possibly be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges.”

“Only the idea of death makes a warrior sufficiently detached so that he is capable of abandoning himself to anything. He knows his death is stalking him and won't give him time to cling to anything so he tries, without craving, all of everything.”

“Personal history must be constantly renewed by telling parents, relatives, and friends everything one does. On the other hand, for the warrior who has no personal history, no explanations are needed; nobody is angry or disillusioned with his acts. And above all, no one pins him down with their thoughts and their expectations.”

“The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge, while an ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or a curse.”

“The hardest thing in the world is to assume the mood of a warrior. It is of no use to be sad and complain and feel justified in doing so, believing that someone is always doing something it us. Nobody is doing anything to anybody, much less to a warrior.”

“The humbleness of a warrior is not the humbleness of the beggar. The warrior lowers his head to no one, but at the same time, he doesn't permit anyone to lower his head to him. The beggar, on the other hand, falls to his knees at the drop of a hat and scrapes the floor to anyone he deems to be higher; but at the same time, he demands that someone lower than him scrape the floor for him.”

“The internal dialogue is what grounds people in the daily world. The world is such and such or so and so, only because we talk to ourselves about its being such and such and so and so. The passageway into the world of shamans opens up after the warrior has learned to shut off his internal dialogue.”

“The most effective way to live is as a warrior. A warrior may worry and think before making any decision, but once he makes it, he goes his way, free from worries or thoughts; there will be a million other decisions still awaiting him. That's the warrior's way.”

“The self-confidence of the warrior is not the self-confidence of the average man. The average man seeks certainty in the eyes of the onlooker and calls that self-confidence. The warrior seeks impeccability in his own eyes and calls that humbleness. The average man is hooked to his fellow men, while the warrior is hooked only to infinity.”

“The spirit of a warrior is not geared to indulging and complaining, nor is it geared to winning or losing. The spirit of a warrior is geared only to struggle, and every struggle is a warrior's last battle on earth. Thus the outcome matters very little to him. In his last battle on earth a warrior lets his spirit flow free and clear. And as he wages his battle, knowing that his intent is impeccable, a warrior laughs and laughs.”

“The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.”

“The warrior: silent in his struggle, undetainable because he has nothing to lose, functional and efficacious because he has everything to gain.”

“The world is incomprehensible. We won't ever understand it; we won't ever unravel its secrets. Thus we must treat the world as it is: a sheer mystery.”

“There are lots of things a warrior can do at a certain time which he couldn't do years before. Those things themselves did not change; what changed was his idea of himself.”

“There's no emptiness in the life of a warrior. Everything is filled to the brim. Everything is filled to the brim, and everything is equal.”

“To be a warrior is not a simple matter of wishing to be one. It is rather an endless struggle that will go on to the very last moment of our lives. Nobody is born a warrior, in exactly the same way that nobody is born an average man. We make ourselves into one or the other.”

“Warriors do not win victories by beating their heads against walls, but by overtaking the walls. Warriors jump over walls; they don't demolish them.”

“We hardly ever realize that we can cut anything out of our lives, anytime, in the blink of an eye.”

“We talk to ourselves incessantly about our world. In fact we maintain our world with our internal talk. And whenever we finish talking to ourselves about ourselves and our world, the world is always as it should be. We renew it, we rekindle it with life, we uphold it with our internal talk. Not only that, but we also choose our paths as we talk to ourselves. Thus we repeat the same choices over and over until the day we die, because we keep on repeating the same internal talk over and over until the day we die. A warrior is aware of this and strives to stop his internal talk.”

“When a man has fulfilled all four of these requisites—to be wide awake, to have fear, respect, and absolute assurance—there are no mistakes for which he will have to account; under such conditions his actions lose the blundering quality of the acts of a fool. If such a man fails, or suffers a defeat, he will have lost only a battle, and there will be no pitiful regrets over that.”

“When a warrior learns to stop the internal dialogue, everything becomes possible; the most far-fetched schemes become attainable.”

“Whenever a warrior decides to do something, he must go all the way, but he must take responsibility for what he does. No matter what he does, he must know first why he is doing it, and then he must proceed with his actions without having doubts or remorse about them.”

«Ап»

Я от страха себя отучал постепенно,
Я отрекся от всех мелочей бытовых,
И теперь каждый вечер на эту арену
Вывожу дрессированных тигров своих.

Ап! И тигры у ног моих сели.
Ап! И с лестниц в глаза мне глядят.
Ап! И кружатся на карусели.
Ап! И в обруч горящий летят,
И в обруч летят.

И с хлыстом подхожу к ним, и с ласковым словом,
Репетирую дважды в течение дня.
Только тигру неясно, что он дрессирован,
Потому то и шрамов не счесть у меня.

Ап! И тигры у ног моих сели.
Ап! И с лестниц в глаза мне глядят.
Ап! И кружатся на карусели.
Ап! И в обруч горящий летят,
И в обруч летят.

Выпадают минуты свободные редко,
И вчера, и сегодня, и завтра аншлаг,
Но когда заходить мне не хочется в клетку -
"Ап!" - себе говорю я, и делаю шаг.

Ап! И тигры у ног моих сели.
Ап! И с лестниц в глаза мне глядят.
Ап! И кружатся на карусели.
Ап! И в обруч горящий летят.

Ап! И тигры у ног моих сели.
Ап! И с лестниц в глаза мне глядят.
Ап! И кружатся на карусели.
"Ап!" - себе говорю я, и делаю шаг,
И делаю шаг, и делаю шаг.
Ап!

Strengthen Your Core

You could seem more emotionally fragile today. It might be that personal issues have been affecting you deeply, and you might find reassurance by staying within the comfort of your home. While your emotions may leave you feeling unsteady, it is important to remember that by taking care of yourself emotionally, your feelings will pass. Perhaps today you could work on building your inner sources of strength. You might take a few minutes to breathe into your abdomen. Imagine that you have a bright-yellow light in this area that expands with each breath. You can think of this light as being a powerful force that infuses your body’s core with unlimited energy. You may find that this gives you the power to remain constant during times of emotional fluctuation.

Becoming connected through our core is a wonderful way to give us the strength we need to cope with any situation that may arise. When life events make us feel weak, we can become grounded in the present by connecting to the area right above our navel, which in many eastern traditions is considered our body’s storehouse of energy. Breathing into this area releases any tension we may feel and brings fresh energy to our core. Imagining a yellow light helps us create a mental picture of this energy filling us up and giving us the strength we need to work through our emotions. By using your core to give you power today, you will strengthen your ability to deal with your personal affairs.

Implications Of Worry

To worry is to become accessible, unwittingly accessible. And once you worry you cling to anything out of desperation; and once you cling you are bound to get exhausted or to exhaust whoever or whatever you are clinging to.

Focus your attention on the link between you and your death, without remorse or sadness or worrying. Focus your attention on the fact you don't have time and let your acts flow accordingly. Let each of your acts be your last battle on earth. Only under those conditions will your acts have their rightful power. Otherwise they will be, for as long as you live, the acts of a timid man.

- Is it so terrible to be a timid man?

No. It isn't if you are going to be immortal, but if you are going to die there is no time for timidity, simply because timidity makes you cling to something that exists only in your thoughts. It soothes you while everything is at a lull, but then the awesome, mysterious world will open its mouth for you, as it will open for every one of us, and then you will realize that your sure ways were not sure at all. Being timid prevents us from examining and exploiting our lot as men.

~Don Juan

The Seven Paths to Power

1. Adequacy. You feel powerful according to your own self-worth. People who feel powerful are usually perceived by others to be powerful. Therefore, power is an outward manifestation of internal beliefs and self-image. Confident people are seen to be more powerful that insecure people. Self-empowerment is the ability to organize yourself, others and the environment, resulting in leadership, the ability to be responsible, to stand up for a cause and be ethical.

*Learn to self-empower yourself by feeling confident without arrogance.

2. Detachment. To become more powerful, you must learn when and how to let go and move on. If you are bitter about the past, worried about old injuries, then the past is robbing your future of your potential power. If you cannot let go of old issues, you become enslaved to them. Letting go is a sign of power - the power to move forward.

*Let go of any past injuries and ideas that make you feel less powerful. Be willing to move forward to a more powerful self.

3. Strength. Strength is the power to survive under difficult situations. This includes the strength of body, strength of character and strength of convictions. When you are strong, you rely on your power to produce, to perform and to achieve.

*Use your ability and natural talents to achieve in your chosen field, to organize your work or your life, and use your talents in the most productive ways. Keep your body and mind healthy through balanced diet, rest and appropriate exercise.

4. Diplomacy. Diplomacy is the power of strategy, verbal skills and language skills. It is also the ability to be patient and gentle in the face of conflict by working with and cooperating with others. People who are diplomatic and realistic about the situation and have the ability to understand others' points of view.

*Learn to be patient, kind to others, realistic and tolerant of the views of others.

5. Moderation. Moderation is power gained through satisfaction, fulfillment and the middle road, the power to know when enough is enough. Fanatics have less power because they don't practice moderation.

*Learn to appreciate what you already have even as you strive to be a better person.

6. Serenity. Serenity is the power to be peaceful and silent, to come from a place where there is no conflict. It is a place of knowing that is everything is perfect just as it is.

*Develop an inner peace that helps you stay on course.

7. Flexibility. Flexibility if the power that anything can change and accepting that constant change is natural and normal. When you are truly flexible, you can accept any event or surprise that life gives you. Flexibility allows people to adapt, shift and move easily.

*Learn to be flexible and adapt to changing situations.

Trusting Your Personal Power

I urge you to feel at ease and confident and trust your personal power.

Trust your personal power. That's all one has in this whole mysterious world. Get hold of yourself, because the darkness is like the wind, an unknown entity at large that could trick you if you are not careful, and you have to be perfectly calm in order to deal with it. You must let yourself go so your personal power will merge with the power of the night.

Those who do not manage their thoughts do not manage their emotions,
Those who do not manage their emotions do not manage their minds,
Those who do not manage their minds do not manage their lives.

Doubt And Fear

The two greatest enemies that stop us from achieving our dreams are doubt and fear and these self-limiting beliefs fill you with exactly that doubt and fear. They act like brakes and they stop you from reaching your full potential. Doubt stops you from taking intelligent risks that are necessary in life to fulfill your potential. Doubt acts like an elastic band that pulls you back to where you remain stagnant each time you are about to achieve your goal. Fear is like an overpowering monster that takes you over mentally and emotionally, and where there is fear there is no room for love or courage, there is no room for boldness or joy and most certainly no room for enthusiasm for life. Doubt and fear kill all these wonderful positive feelings.

What You Think Of Me Is None Of My Business

A student went to his master teacher and asked to be taught the key to true inner peace and freedom from emotional suffering. The master said to him, "Go to the cemetery and curse the person that lay in each grave. Tell them that they are stupid and their mother is ugly too. After you have done that then go back again the next day and bless and praise each person in every grave, telling them how wonderful they are...tell them that the world worships them to this day...even go so far as to light incense and candles for each one, calling them saints. When you have done this, come back to me." The student dutifully did as instructed. Upon returning, the master asked the student, "Well, what did they have to say about your opinions?" Astounded, the student replied, "How could they respond to me at all? They were all dead and could not hear a word I said, negative or positive."

The master replied, "When you too, do not hear what others have to say about you, negative or positive, you will know true inner peace and freedom from suffering." Of course the student lived happily ever after.

Isn't it interesting how our egoistic nature gets in the way when we "buy-in" with attachment, to what other people think and say about us? Why do you suppose that is? At some level, we still have not accepted the fact that we really are OK just the way we are, so we develop a need (addiction) for other people’s criticism or praise to prove to us, that how we feel about ourselves is correct. The law of attraction will always guarantee an ample supply of these individuals to assist us in demonstrating how we feel about ourselves. We find symbiotic relationships and “encounters” that help our ego feed upon the worthlessness we feel.

The fact is, other people’s opinions are never really about you, it is about themselves. We always serve as divine mirrors for one another. Terri Cole Whitaker summarized it all beautifully in the title of her book, “WHAT YOU THINK OF ME IS NONE OF MY BUSINESS.” When you are mindful of your true divine nature, other peoples opinions (nice or nasty) are meaningless, because you know who you really are and therefore have no need to be defined by a world peopled with many individuals who are constantly seeking targets to project their own sense of pain and lack upon. This doesn’t mean you have to ignore compliments and constructive input from others; just be sure it does not become food for the ego. By living in a full awareness of God’s Presence it will automatically make you immune to opinions targeted at the ego self. Make a decision not to take ANYTHING personally...and then notice the inner peace that comes with that release.

“When you are mindful of your true divine nature, other peoples opinions are meaningless, because you know who you really are. . .”

Always Be Yourself

Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself; do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.

~Master Bruce Lee

Whatever You Fight You Ignite!

Whatever you fight you ignite!

Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it into a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.
Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

~Master Bruce Lee

The Four Agreements

1. Be Impeccable With Your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Don't Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

3. Don't Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

~Don Miguel Ruiz

To be alive is the biggest fear humans have. Death is not the biggest fear we have; the biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive – the risk to be alive and express what we really are. We have learned to live our life trying to satisfy other people’s demands. We have learned to live by other people’s points of view because of the fear of not being accepted and of not being good enough for someone else.

~Don Miguel Ruiz

- I see myself as a radiant being, filled with energy, creativity and purpose.
- I choose to surround myself with people who are kind, supportive and appreciate me for the great person I am.
- Other people’s thoughts about me or my abilities do not affect me.
- I see myself being comfortable with who I am without the need to earn the love or approval from other people.

Positive Thoughts To Dwell On

Many times we spend hours and hours dwelling and ruminating on the negative and fearful things in our lives. Instead, our focus and attention needs to be on the positive, the good, and on thoughts that will move us in the right direction. Read one of these statements to yourself every day -- and dwell on it.

If you pay attention to the darkness, you'll never find the light.

If you study and relive your past experiences, analyzing them, and "getting in touch with your feelings" you will only reinforce those feelings. If you want to get away from a problem, you should not focus on it. Focus on the good, the positive, the beautiful, the nice.

A happy person is fully caught up in the moment --and is not thinking about the past or the future.

Too much thinking and analyzing just makes any problem worse. Today is a wonderful day – live it in the present.

Why do little children think ghosts, goblins, and monsters are real? As adults, we know they aren’t. Your thoughts aren’t "real" either in the sense that you "create" and reinforce them -- and the emotions that go along with them. Your thoughts are only what you decide to believe in and continually reinforce in your mind. (This one is deep – think about this one.)

For example, you are sitting alone in the dark in your home. You are down, depressed and thinking negative thoughts. All of a sudden the phone rings and it’s a friend you haven’t talked to in six years. You become alert, your mood picks up, and you have a nice conversation. Then, after you’ve hung up, you get blue again and fall back into a depressed mood. Why?

Suggestion: Even though we don’t feel it – we have more power over our thoughts than we think. We can decide to stay "up" after the phone call by doing everything we can to keep from slipping back into the quicksand of rumination and despair. (Cognitive-behavioral therapy gives us the tools to move away from anxiety and depression – and eventually to stay or "be" that way.)

If your thoughts begin to change, you will feel better.

If you act despite your feelings, your beliefs and emotions will follow behind.

There is so much in life I can’t control. But this is my life and I’ve decided to be happy. I can choose to be happy regardless of my other circumstances. It’s not "when I get a promotion, I’ll be happy....." or "when I can speak in front of a small group of people, I’ll be happy....." The focus should be on learning to be happy now. Tap into your inner peace and contentment in the way that works best for you.

Happiness is a result of a decision to be happy.

Your emotions and feelings are created by your thoughts.

Unhappiness cannot exist on its own. It occurs because of thoughts, which can be changed.

Your past thoughts are about events that are no longer real. That bad experience happened yesterday (in the past) and is over. It is gone and exists solely in your mind. Today is a new day, a better day, and worrying about the past just dooms us in the present. It’s how you process it now that makes a difference.

You are a thought-producing machine. When you realize this, you can begin to slow your thoughts down and allow your anxieties and fears to rest.

Your automatic negative thoughts (ANTs) are only thoughts: they are not real. Your ANTS are not real. They do not tell you the truth.

Our tendency is to think TOO MUCH and to paralyze ourselves with our ruminations. We have a choice: Realize what we're doing to ourselves, get up, find a distraction, and do something interesting (positive).

Happy people understand that to enjoy life you live it -- you don’t think about it.

Watch a roomful of preschool children. They are enjoying life because they are focused on the moment and are not thinking about it. They are immersed and absorbed in living.

Analysis creates paralysis.

Anticipatory anxiety killing you? Stop thinking about it, take that step, and just do it.

Thoughts grow with attention. If you focus on negative thoughts, they will grow and grow and become larger. If you focus on your progress and the new thoughts you are learning, they will grow stronger and take "automatic" control.

Even if you understand and know why you have a problem, this will not help you in solving it. Going over and over the reasons for your problem is like pouring salt in an open wound.

The only factor making you unhappy is your own thoughts. Relax, release them, let them go.

When you notice self-limiting and self-defeating thoughts playing over and over in your mind, say "STOP! I will not give you any more power over me! I have better things to do!!"

~Based on work of Richard Carlson