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Archive for October, 2017

Merchant Souls
 
Oh how they love! How temperate they remain!
Only love does not make them richer!
How scrupulously they barter
And add little emotions to little emotions.
 
And here stands one, who with a thousand hands,
Wants to cast himself, like seed, into the universe
To complete his existence a thousand fold,
To renew his existence a thousand fold.
 
No, no, I pass on your ambition,
I cannot safely barter my heart!
Better to live with whores and gamble,
As heartily as you do making deals!

Richard Dehmal
translated by Joe Bandel

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Emotional crisis is painful. The worst experiences of my life have dealt with emotional pain and not physical pain. I’m sure others can relate to what I’m saying. On the flipside, emotional pleasure and satisfaction is what makes life worth living. Life without emotions would not be worth living. We take risks and experience the joy, pleasure and satisfaction that success brings.

We work hard and earn the rewards we receive. We are competent in life and enjoy competition. We enjoy the struggle and reward. We have no interest in getting something we have not earned through our own physical laborers. This is the viewpoint of a person that takes risks. Perhaps we risk by asking someone out for a date.

After many rejections we are accepted and dating someone we really like. Perhaps we even fall in love. Without the first risks and the first failures, chances are we would never have been successful. Emotional rejections are very painful but they are also instructive if we can learn from them.

The negative aspect of this stage is powerful. We are confronted or placed in situations where our feet feel like lead weights, our heart is in our throats and we can’t breathe. We feel fear to the point of being frozen. Despite this awkwardness of fear and discomfort we force ourselves to move forward, whether it be a task we fear or asking someone to marry us.

The important point is we do not allow our fear to prevent us from doing the things that we desire. I like to think of a hungry lion stalking its prey. It is crouching in the tall grass and lying very still. Suddenly there is a deafening roar. Will the prey freeze in terror and make an easy meal or will the terror cause the prey to bolt for safety with a life-saving burst of speed?

More to the point, what do we do with our terror? I once worked security at a place where an infant fell into a swimming pool and could not swim. The mother was frozen in terror and couldn’t do anything. Fortunately another security guard immediately jumped in the pool and rescued the infant.

Life places us in situations where we will feel terror. It might not happen often but it will happen and how we react will depend upon our past habits, training and activities. The military has proven time after time that when the brain shuts down the physical body reverts to training. We need to seriously think about what kind of training we have. Then we need to think about what kind of training we need.

By taking risks we develop the heart and will power to achieve in life. Working with emotional crisis develops what it takes to succeed in life.

We can only achieve joy, pleasure, and satisfaction by risking and acting in spite of personal fears and limitations. This is not being passive. In the first stage we were victims, in the second stage we learned from our mistakes. In this stage we deliberately go after what we want. We do this in spite of our inexperience, lack of knowledge and our fears.

We are clumsy and crude in our first attempts. We may or may not succeed but we have the heart and will power that allows us to eventually succeed. We believe in ourselves enough to overcome whatever obstacles may occur in time. It is our faith in ourselves and our connection to the master within that allows us to go forward into new and strange situations with confidence and determination. Our desire is stronger than our fear.

We begin as observers and gradually try things out for ourselves. We are observers simply because we don’t have any control of the situation or experience and we are stuck in it.

Think of the newborn baby that has no physical control over his or her body yet. All they can do is observe. Imagine the frustration young children feel when they can’t do something they want to do.

Our contact with the master within and our creative power started at the spiritual level and then transferred to the mental level. That is where we learned what we wanted to do. The emotional part comes when we try to act upon our desires.

Desire meets physical reality! What an exciting place to be if we can make it work!.

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Each person is given a unique perspective based upon past experiences and current beliefs. It is entirely possible to be right or correct in your own mind and dead wrong to someone else.

It is important to recognize the truth and validity in each individual’s viewpoint. Piece by piece we gather knowledge from others and add it to our own to develop a personal belief system.

Given our individual life circumstances, or personal backgrounds, and our past experiences, we are all trying to get through life the best we know how to do.

We all have blind spots, things that we just are not naturally aware of and other people can give us insight into those blind spots because they might not have those blind spots! By learning about our own blind spots we can improve our grasp of reality and become more effective in achieving our goals.

One way of doing this is by developing both the male and female perspectives within our conscious awareness. Males and females perceive the world in very different but equally valid ways. Accepting insight and perspective from the opposite sex will always enrich and balance our personal belief system.

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I’m going to share something that is not commonly understood about the nonphysical realities, the astral planes and magic in general. Events happen in the astral planes before they physically manifest. I’ve experienced this personally every day. This is not theory for me. We all have the ability to modify or alter events within the astral planes before they physically manifest if we are able to function within the astral planes.

The physical body generates energy! It is astounding how much energy the physical body can produce! That energy can be injected into the astral planes in a way that will influence events before they physically happen. This has been called magic in the past, but I’m just saying that it happens. Call it whatever you want.

But the astral planes are extremely elastic and they resist change. You can generate a lot of energy and it still might not be enough to overcome the elasticity of the astral planes. When this happens the energy you generated is simply dispersed without changing anything. It won’t change anything because the astral resists change! I can’t say this enough!

You need to generate an extreme amount of energy to break through the resistance and elasticity. I will use a graphic example. When an athlete or a runner gets their second wind they are injecting raw energy into the astral planes for the first time. But the energy that the athlete is injecting into the astral planes is not enough to overcome the elasticity that it will encounter! This injection of energy into the astral planes needs to happen at least twice a day! Otherwise it’s probably a wasted effort. Don’t get me wrong, the energy that you generate during the day always belongs to you and even though it gets dispersed within the astral planes it will accumulate until there is enough so that the lunar cycle may compress it enough to break through that elasticity and resistance. But its better if you can do it for yourself.

What I’m trying to share is the importance of living intensely and the importance of generating a lot of energy with your physical body no matter what kind of energy that is! You will know if you have generated enough energy when you have vivid and powerful or explosive dreams at night where that energy is discharged. If you’re not having at least three vivid and powerful dreams a week you’re not generating enough energy to move events in a creative way!

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When we see a person at work or on the street do we know if they act that way at home? Do we always know how our kids act away from home? Do we act differently at home and when we are away from home?

Each individual is very complex with many hobbies, interests and life experiences. Even if we know someone very well we can still be surprised at some of the things they do.

We use the limited knowledge we have about people to form images or stereotypes. We use these images to help us understand and deal with every person in our lives. Because of these images or stereotypes we are sometimes surprised when people don’t respond in the way we are expecting them to. We may even need to reevaluate others and treat them differently as we learn more about them.

One of the most powerful ways to achieve our goals and to experience the things we want in life is to act, dress, and live in a manner that will create the image or stereotype that is appropriate for achieving our goals. Through repeated exposure to the image we are projecting others will stereotype us in a manner that is consistent with our own goals and treat us the way we want to be treated. They will help support us in achieving our goal!

When people don’t recognize the image we project they will create one of their own and we probably won’t like it. Who wants to be labeled as a loser or a freak? We have to give people clues about how we want to be treated.

First we create a general image or stereotype that is recognizable to others. Then we can create a subcategory that is unique and individual that reveals more of our true inner self. We must be true to the stereotype that we project and at the same time remain true to ourselves. Remember an image or stereotype tends toward self-fulfillment because everyone else constantly reinforces it. It is up to us to choose what we want to be in life and let others know how to treat us.

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By a Mountain Streamlet

Stop, lusty runaway,
Give me your answer, short and fast,
Tell me, dearest streamlet,
Do you ever think of anything serious?
I would gladly exchange my wisdom,
For your light heartedness.
 
Look, how the little Wight laughs at that,
Sprays water drops into my face,
Then springs forth into the sunshine,
Is that your answer?

Mia Holm 1900
translation by Joe Bandel

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Crisis is an important aspect of development and natural competency. It is only through crisis that mastery can be developed in life situations. The more issues we confront and deal with successfully, the more competent we are in life.

Seen this way crisis is not something to be avoided but something to be confronted. Crisis is simply an inability to cope with an existing situation. In learning to cope with the existing situation we develop competency and develop personal power.

At this stage of working with mental energy we learn from past experiences and are able to mentally remain in the situation. Our awareness has enough power and flexibility to understand how our physical actions have brought us to where we are now. We understand our part in being responsible for what happened to us.

There is no longer the need to remove ourselves from the situation even if it is unpleasant for us. This is an important part of the law of cause and effect. Our every action brings some type of result and natural consequence. This is what most understand as mastery of life.

Our mental web of associated thoughts has become sophisticated enough that we adapt successfully to a wide variety of physical situations. We develop a lifestyle that appears to get us the things we want in life. Few people ever go beyond this stage. If it works, don’t fix it, seems to be the motto.

Increased contact with the master within and the voice of our conscience allows us to learn from our successes and our mistakes. In the beginning we can’t foresee or avoid mistakes but we can learn from the final outcome. Each failure brings greater knowledge and awareness of the issues involved and the realities behind them. Each attempt is the result of our dreams and desires as they confront physical reality. For things to manifest in life they must be in harmony with physical reality.

We understand the importance of risk-taking. If we do not take risks and try new things we remain where we are. Many people are afraid and only attempt things they have a proven ability to do. It is easy to play it safe except when nature or God decides to interfere in our placid, boring life and liven it up a bit. Both God and nature intend life to be an exploration and an adventure. This includes experiencing as many things as possible, both good and bad.

The struggle to adapt to new life conditions and the satisfaction of personal achievement is rewarded by both nature and physical life. The rewards go to those that take the risks and succeed.

The human condition will not accept unrelenting boredom and will create crisis just to make life interesting. Consider how important choosing an exciting and interesting life can be. Our days can be full of excitement, not crisis. To do this we must take the risks involved in making our dreams come true.

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We can argue until doomsday about what happens when we die and it will not change the way things really are. Just because we believe in heaven or hell doesn’t mean they really exist. We have no way of knowing until we experience it for ourselves. If we have a personal relationship with God it doesn’t matter what happens after we die.

There is evidence that self awareness requires both a soul body and a physical body. This implies that the soul must reincarnate into a new physical human body after the old one dies.

As already stated, there is no proof for this and belief or disbelief will not change the way things really are. There are several advantages to accepting this concept however.

Immediately we are confronted by the need to act responsibly. Heaven or hell are seen as states of mind and not as physical realities. They are mental and emotional realities.

We cannot escape our problems through suicide because we will just find ourselves back in another body facing the same or similar problems over and over again until we resolve them.

We can create heaven on earth for ourselves and for our fellow human beings.

The devil is seen as a scapegoat we use to avoid responsibility for our own actions. The devil made me do it! Becomes one of the lamest excuses imaginable.

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Have you ever noticed that some of the great thinkers are given incredible insight that is so simple and self-evident that everyone understands it and agrees with it? But then what the same great thinkers do, is build a system or philosophy around that simplicity and make it more complex and hard to understand. They extend it out to where it is no longer self-evident or believable. For example take what Sigmund Freud did with his system of free association psychotherapy by taking a simple concept and expanding it out into nonsense.

It’s not only the great thinkers that do this, but the ones that come after them and rewrite the original works in a way that distorts the original intent and meaning. Over and over I’ve seen spiritual, philosophical, or psychological organizations return back to original source documents because only the originator of that system was tapping into Source. Only the original source documents contain the force and energy that is required.

What I’ve done or tried to do is collect nuggets of wisdom from various sources and leave them the way they are. I’m not really trying to build complex systems or philosophies out of them. I think that these nuggets of wisdom speak for themselves and as a collection form a coherent unity on their own.

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Today were going to practice beginning and ending conversations. I’m going to give some examples about situations you might find yourself in and I want you to think about the best way to respond. Some of these are beginning conversations with somebody and ways to do it. Others are examples where you may be trapped in a conversation that you want out of. How do you escape?

So first we’ll try something obvious:

Hello my name is Joe

Hello, may I help you?

This is pretty easy and straightforward but how would you end this conversation?

I would really like to hear more later when I have more time.

Can we talk again sometime?

Think about situations like these and ways that you could respond both to begin the conversation and to get out of it. The more tricks you have up your sleeve the more flexible your choices are and the less stress you experience. Let’s try some more. This time let’s try to force a conversation or avoid a conversation.

Excuse me, I need to talk to you for a minute.

Hey you in the red shirt.

I don’t have time right now.

I’m busy right now, perhaps we can talk about this later.

You’re probably getting the idea by now. Let’s try changing the subject or returning to the subject.

Don’t you have a car like that one?

But what about the thing that happened yesterday?

I don’t see what this has to do with what we are talking about.

Weren’t we talking about yesterday?

Again come up with some of your own examples and solutions so that you have them ready when you need them. Now we can practice interrupting the conversation and what happens when we are interrupted.

Excuse me, I have a 2 o’clock appointment.

I’ve got to go to the bathroom.

Let me finish what I’m trying to say first.

This will only take a minute.

I’m hoping that you recognize some of the situations and also recognize how you’ve been trapped within situations like these. What we’re doing now is deliberately creating assertive ways to make a conversation go the way that we want it to go. This one is actually more difficult than it seems. Let’s try expressing joy or how to deal with someone else that is expressing joy.

I’m so happy I could scream!

We could have so much fun!

Let’s do it!

You look really great today!

Emotions are always tough, especially when someone else is expressing emotions to you and you don’t know the appropriate response. Let’s try expressing sadness and ways to deal with sadness.

My car just broke down and I don’t know how to get home.

I just can’t seem to stop crying.

Here’s a Kleenex.

Do you have anyone to talk to?

This last one is maybe the most difficult of all and that is expressing anger and dealing with someone else’s anger. So let’s give these a shot.

I’m warning you!

I’ve about had it with the people around here.

What are you so mad about?

Did I do something to offend you?

These are all examples of situations that might be uncomfortable and suggestions on ways to creatively deal with the situations. Come up with other situations on your own and solutions on your own. The time spent will be well worth it and what you will learn will help you to be more assertive!

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