We are all a mirrors!

I realize how we all project our own inner world, views, perceptions, judgments, preferences, likes and dislikes onto what it is we see in the world outside of us, and I am no exception.

The saying goes that perception is reality, but if we all perceive differently based upon our personal views, beliefs, judgments, preferences and evaluations, what lies beyond our subjective perceptions, projections and reflections, and how can we get in touch with that?

I always wondered about this idea that perception is reality, the main reason being is that if we all perceive differently the reality we see and live in is different from person to person, and so if we all live in different realities there is no wonder that we are so alienated and separate from one another.

In then seems only obvious that we ourselves have become alienated from ourselves, one another and life in general since what we see, what we think, what we feel, what we know and what we look for is different from person to person depending on our subjective learning experiences and personality.

The question I would like to raise is here is the following; what is the true nature of reality, what lies beyond our personal views, beliefs, knowledge and understanding, and how can we get in touch with that?

We have found the enemy, and the enemy is us.

Isnt it is much easier to blame and point fingers at those who we perceive to be the enemy than to take full responsibility for our own actions? From our government to our parents, another culture to God, there is always somebody else at fault for our own unhappiness.

Let me give you a free reality check: The enemy does not lie outside of us, it is not terrorism, or Bush, or our corrupt government, or our parents, our boss or whoever else you might blame for what is wrong with this world, but the enemy is us.

We all have absorbed the dysfunctionality of this world through the media, our parents, the educational, political and economic system we are part of, and so we are at war against ourselves which we tend to project outwardly. Since we learned that the way we are is not perfect, that God is separate, love conditional, happiness to be pursued and success to be achieved we have been conditioned to believe that life is all about money, property, attachment, production, consumption and competition.

Depending on where we grow up in the world we absorb the traditions, culture, belief system and values of the system we grow up in, and so basically we live out the script which has been handed down to us.

Just imagine how differently you would think, feel and re-act if you grew up for example in Iraq, China, Europe or Africa. Still, isnt there something which goes beyond our conditioned up-bringing, something which is universal and timeless?

Of course I am referring to our essence as spiritual beings which we have forgotten as we are having this physical experience in this world. Life is so much bigger and more mysterious than what we have been told, but of course our teacher, preachers and leaders dont really care telling us about that since in order to become a good student, child, co-worker and citizen we need not question the reality of the world we grew up in, but rather do what is expected of us, and ultimately we all do that.

We all seem to be on a constant journey looking for what we need or want out of life, trying to find that which is lacking within ourselves. What we fail to understand is that life is less about what we get, what we seek, what we are looking for, but life is about what we give, what we contribute, how we treat others and the attitude with which we approach a situation with, all of which creates our own reality.

My free advice for the day, take some time to listen and look within yourself. You are a magnificent being, regardless of what you have been told, regardless of the hatred and ignorance you get from others, regardless of your past experiences and conditioning, and so I hope that we all can learn to remember who we are as spiritual beings who are created in the image of God, endowed with infinite potential.

I hope that we all can learn to remember what we are here for in the first place, which is to bring more light, love and happiness into this world.

Lets move beyond our conditioned darkness, fear and ignorance, and come to the awareness that on a deep spiritual level we are the God of our own creation, and that separation, alienation, fear, depression and anxiety only exists in the mind because this is what we have absorbed from the world we grew up in.

Every day, every moment is a gift, a new opportunity for learning, exploration, self examination and transformation, but how is that possible if we remain attached to our subjective views, values, belief systems and paradigms from which we see and judge the world outside.

Remember, all is one and one is all, so every time we project our own hatred and ignorance onto others we not only hurt ourselves, but we also feed into the kind of consciousness which allowed for all the blood shed, war and violence which weaves through human history as we know it.

The age old battle between the darkness and the light.

All personal, inter-personal, social and universal wars are fought between those two opposing sides, the darkness and the light.

The darkness represents fear, ignorance, illusion, inhibition, in-activity, boredom, guilt, sorrow, anxiety, depression, hate, violence, seperation and alienation, while the light is all about love, understanding, empathy, creativity, happiness, perfection, unity and oneness.

We come into this world as spiritual beings who are an extension of the light from which all of life springs (God), born in pure perfection and endowed with infinite potential, but as we 'grow up' we absorb a great amount of the dysfuncationality inherit in the 'system' we become part of, and slowly our inner light begins to dim down.

Over time we learn to that God is seperate, love is conditional, happiness is to be pursued and success to be achieved. Being programmed to perform, conform, consume and compete we slowly forget what we already knew before we came into this world, and so we learn about and cling on to the idea of an external God who punishes those who dis-obey, and reward those who submit themselves to this omnipotent authority.The reason for why that is only becomes too apparant if we examine the laws which lie at the foundation of our production and consumption oriented society.

In order for our world to function we do not need individuals who are connected to their inner light, but rather those who can be easily influenced and submit themselves to the external autority of the world they grow up in.

Without that, our political, educational and economic system could not function, and so all social instutitions from our families, churches, schools, businesses to the entertainment industry support this idea that life is a matter of living up to the standards, rules and expectations imposed onto us from an omnipotent source outside of us.

Because of this, most all of us have lost faith in our own powers, while seeking identity, shelter, hope and protection in an external authority, be it the church, government, our place of business, and the culture we grow up in.

To be continued....

Time. The final frontier~~~

Time is such a greatly misunderstood, precious and valuable element. We all have the same time available to us, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, but how we spend our time is different from person to person. It was always interesting for me to see how many of us (as we grow older) do not know what to do with themselves, they are bored, stuck in the same day to day routine, and instead of using time they are being used by it.

The question I would like to raise in this blog, why is that, and does it have to be that way?

As we 'grow' up we learn to postpone instant gratification and instead are forced to invest our time for a future goal, i.e. dont play with your friends today, but instead study for your math test, so you get a good grade, so you can graduate and one day get a good job.

What happens with us during this time?

As children we experienced things quite differently, of course this was easy with no memory of the past, and no thoughts about the future. There was no tomorrow, no yesterday, but only the present moment, and this is how we lived our life, with full presence of mind and awareness in the here and now. As we 'grew' older this changed quite a bit since we were no longer allowed to daydream and let our imagination run wild. From now on (of course I am talking about the time after we entered the school 'system') life was a matter of doing what we have to do instead of doing what we wanted to.

This was when our whole concept of time changed. Instead of living with full presence in the NOW we learned that we need to sacrifice 'present moment living' for the sake of some future goal. The need to achieve, compete and produce required us to forget how to listen to our inner voice (which is extremely predominant in young children), question reality and learn for ourselves what this thing called life is all about, and instead fit the mold imposed onto us by the system we are part of.

Just one look at our society reveals our greatest modern problem. Nobody has time for anything, but everybody runs from one meeting to another appointment to a social gathering in our need to compensate for the fact that we are utterly lost and confused, but who is really taking the time to question what we know and to contemplate life in order to fully understand our higher purpose as human 'beings.

I would like to end this blog with a cliche you all have heard, but only very few understand, and while I have alienated a few people by using it I have come to realize that it is only true what we have heard:

Time is money. So the question is, are we using it wisely or is time using us?

What is love? A feeling or an action?

This was the question which preoccupied me during most my marriage, and so my first public appearance at the Boys and Girls Club was dedicated to this issue. Appearing in front on a dozen or so pre-teenagers I asked them: Is love a feeling or an action? Almost all children responded quickly, it is a feeeling. My point back then was that love is more than just a fuzzy and warm sensation which comes over us when we are with that special someone, or when our parents do nice things for us and therefore make us 'feel' loved.

If love is just a feeling, it can come and go at any time, but what about genuine, undonditional love, the kind which endures all and does not depend on what we get in return.

During my marriage of 12 years, a time which was extremely difficult for me I developed the idea, (and this was also my Aol screenname during that time) that love(i)s (a)n attitude. Ultimately it is all about how we treat others, how we make them feel, how we show them that we love them through our actions and deeds.

Never having experienced the wonderful feeling of 'being in' love I assumed that love is all about what we do, and how we relate ourselves to others. Of course there is a legitimate point to that, but not until last year when I met an amazing woman via the internet did I realize that actually my young audience at the Boys and Girls club was also right. More than just an attitude, more than just something we do for somebody else, love is something we feel once we get the sense from the person we are with that we are being loved.

In summary, I guess it is safe to say that love is both a feeling and an action. When we feel love, be it towards a person, God, or humanity in general, more than just having a warm and fuzzy feeling we are motivated to act in loving ways towards the object of our love.

This is a very complex and far reaching issue, and I will definitely write about this some other time, but I just wanted to introduce this concept to you, and hopefully provide you with some food for thought about the true meaning and essence of love.


Thank you for reading.

Your comments and feedback are highly appreciated.

If Life is the School, and Experience the Teacher, what are we here to learn?

As we are programmed to pay attention to the teacher outside of us that we fail to realize what we are here to learn in the first place. Our emphasize on our academic development only keeps us from understanding that ultimately nobody can teach us anything, and true knowledge only can arise from within.

We have countless people in this world who are extremely educated, knowledgeable and "intelligent", but only very few who are sensible, reasonable, rational and kind.

Of course, in order to survive in our society it is more important for us to produce desirable results and outcomes (as prescribed by our government leaders, bosses, teachers and parents), consume the variety of products and services provided to us, and compete against various others in the market place, all of which will ensure the growth of our economy, but during all this time, what happens to our humanity?

Ultimately we are all conditioned to believe that learning is a matter of memorizing facts and information which is fed to us by a school teacher who instructs us in subjects such as biology, history, chemistry, math and english, but is that true learning?

As we go through the stages of our conditioned up-bringing we adopt certain views, belief systems, and a general knowledge base which lies at the foundation of the person we have become, but during all this time, what have we learned about life? Apparantly this is not as important as for us to make good grades, not question what we are being told, and fit the mold imposed onto us.

My question for you: What is the effect our conditioned learning has on our FREE spirits, and what are the messages we received during the process of our 'education?

I would love to hear your ideas and comments.

What is evolution without consciousness?

Everything in life goes through the perfect, natural and gradual process of evolution.

Everything in life has evolved, you, me, every life form, from the smallest micro organism to the largest mammell, and of course this world has evolved every since the beginning of time. It does not really matter when that was, so if you believe that the world is only about 6000 years old, or several billion years, the fact of the matter is that everything in existence went through the process of evolution.

What has been missing during this process is the element of consciousness, and so we have not consciously e-volved, but rather un-consciously de-volved.

I remember that when as a child I learned about the impermanent nature of all things, this concept provided me with much angst and anxiety. Eventually I found out that everything in life is going through the inevitable process of change (evolution). This is very difficult, and quite frightening for children to understand, yet change is the essence of life.

It seems to me that while we never fully grasp this universal truth, as we 'grow up' we tend to fear change as we are programmed to develop a certain personality, and adopt certain views, values, belief systems which rarely, if every change.

The question which I like to raise is the following:

If change (evolution) is the only constant in life, how instead of fearing it can we learn to embrace, attract and generate change?