I Am Cat

Not funny?
It could be by becoming familiar with I Am That.

Okay, maybe not. It's a bad joke. But the book is profound. Read it.

Placebo Awareness

Here in North America everywhere you go there are campaigns going on for cancer awareness, diabetes awareness, heart disease awareness, and so on. While the intentions behind these campaigns are undoubtedly positive, I believe there is a grave error being made that most people are completely unaware of.

There is the placebo effect and then there is the nocebo effect. Most people have never heard of the nocebo effect, nor do they understand the full implications of it.

The placebo effect is when an illness, health issue or disease is suddenly, instantly and miraculously gone when absolutely no (actual) medicine or treatment of any kind has been taken. It's what happens when the mind no longer believes that a disease is real. The mind has been completely emptied, even on a subconscious level, that there is such a thing as illness. There IS only health, and not an iota of doubt about it exists in consciousness. Health alone is real.

Now if the mind is this profoundly powerful and can eradicate and cure disease with no effort whatsoever, what does this mean for the nocebo effect? In short, the nocebo effect means that when we buy into and believe something (ie. cancer runs in my family, 1 in 3 people get it), we're far more likely to experience that in our life.

Many health conscious folks will argue (as I used to) that it's the additives and chemicals in processed foods, in our water and in our overall environment that's "causing" these diseases. While this may be partly true, on the other hand perhaps this is just another belief that's contributing to our health issues.

Years ago I once saw on television (might have been Ripley's Believe It Or Not) a guy put molten metal in his mouth without being harmed. Another person has eaten nothing but metal for years, like nails, and x-rays proved it. These are just a couple prime examples of the power of the mind.

We are only subject to what we buy into. Have the belief that you are untouchable. The power of the mind, when properly harnessed, overrides the physical, and this means that we no longer need to be searching for the cure. The placebo effect is the cure.

Being Positive = Truth/Love/Peace = Placebo Effect = Healthy Cells = Healthy Body

Remember, there IS only health. It alone is real.

I highly recommend:

Healing and Recovery by Dr. David R. Hawkins

Pro-life vs. Pro-choice: Who Cares?

With the understanding and recognition of reincarnation and the fact that we are not the body, or that Life is not confined to a body, the whole "pro-life vs. pro-choice" argument seems silly.

Nobody is ever born and nobody ever dies. Life/consciousness is neverendingly forever. By having an abortion, nobody is being harmed, nobody is losing anything and nobody is being denied of life. If consciousness doesn't enter that specific physical body, it'll simply reincarnate into a different one. No big deal. Life goes on, and it can't do anything but. The essence of Life itself is eternal. There was never a time that you weren't, and there will never be a time that you won't be.

However, nobody can really fully understand this unless they've had a "spiritual experience", out of body experience, past-life regression (hypnosis) session, or something else along these lines. And because relatively few people have had such experiences, the pro-life vs. pro-choice debate will go on and on and on... and on.

If you haven't had any such experience yourself, and you're curious about what is said here, a quick 30 second meditation session can verify this for a person. If you tell the mind to stop thinking, it starts right back up again all by itself. And if the mind is operating completely on it's own, which this simple experiment shows very clearly that it is, then you are the Silent Awareness that is watching the mind's thoughts. And if the mind isn't you, then all the physical actions that the body does, which are the direct result of the functioning mind, then none of the body's actions are "you" either. "You are not the doer of deeds" says the Hindu scriptures, the Tao Te Ching, and countless Zen Masters. Thus, you are not the body, and whether it lives or dies is ultimately irrelevant.

Here's a fun lyric from Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground...

I'm so darn glad he let me try it again
Cause my last time on earth I lived a whole world of sin
I'm so glad that I know more than I knew then
Gonna keep on tryin'
Till I reach the highest ground

Power vs. Force

We all have opinions and beliefs, and we express them constantly, but are those opinions and beliefs actually true, or is it just wishful thinking on behalf of the ego? What if those opinions and beliefs are in reality quite negative and harmful to us, creating all sorts of discord and suffering in our life that we're not even consciously aware of?

As David R. Hawkins points out, the fundamental limitation of the human mind is that it's unable to tell the difference between truth and falsehood, positives from negatives, and that which is beneficial from the harmful. Thus, we have problems in our lives and in the world.

If we all actually knew the truth, and were living that truth, there wouldn't be a single man-made problem in the entire world, ever, because truth doesn't ever create problems. Only falsehood creates problems, or the illusion of "problems."

David Hawkins' book Power vs. Force provides a solution to the human brain's built-in ignorance; a means to tap into pure all-knowing consciousness so that we can drop negatives from our life, adopt positives, and solve the world's problems. We can now tell - instantly - whether anything at all is true or false, despite all opinions about it.

Power vs. Force is a monumental achievement in the study of consciousness that will undoubtedly, if practiced, change the world in profoundly beneficial ways. The painful process of learning by trial and error can now be a thing of the past, and consequently, the evolution of mankind has the potential to make huge leaps and bounds in very little time.

If you're a fan of "The Power of Now" and other such "self-help" style books, or anything on the topics of enlightenment and the nature of the ego, Power vs. Force will change your world in ways you can't even imagine. I HIGHLY recommend this book (and Hawkins' others). It's absolutely vital reading for anybody on the spiritual, philosophical, or even scientific path. If you seek truth of any sort, at any level, this is the ticket.

To give a (very) small taste of what you'll find, here's a few quotes from the book:

"Intelligence and rationality rise to the forefront when the emotionalism of the lower levels is transcended."

"By taking responsibility for the consequences of his own perceptions, the observer can transcend the role of victim to an understanding that 'nothing out there has power over you.'"

"Relatively few people are genuinely committed to peace as a realistic goal, for in their private lives, most people prefer being 'right' at whatever cost to their relationships or themselves."

"At the lower levels of consciousness, propositions are accepted as true even when they're illogical, unfounded, and express tenets neither intellectually provable nor practically demonstrable."

"Facts are accumulated with great effort, but truth reveals itself effortlessly."

"Man's dilemma - now and always - has been that he misidentifies his own intellectual artifacts as reality. But these artificial suppositions are merely the products of an arbitrary point of perception."

"There is only one absolute truth; all the rest are semi-facts spawned from the artifacts of limited perception and positionality."

Dante is Daunting

I say, reading Dante is a bit daunting,
though no longer in native tongue,
the great Comedy remains haunting.

Many weeks will be spent reading,
entranced in the beauty and grace,
it urges one's soul to sing.

Though just beginning, I already sense
that words are just words,
and of value is the primal essence.

The message is timeless and true,
turning from vice, and toward virtue,
transcending inner hell are the few.

Clinging to beliefs and desires,
ruled by the mind and rarely the heart,
chasing illusions till the body expires.

Experiencing within, feelings of all sorts:
Of inferno, purgatorio or paradiso,
whatever it be, the mind distorts.

"Leave the mind behind" say the wise,
and with this I must agree.
Stay true to the heart and thou shall rise.

The heart thinks too, but not with words,
it just knows, innately, intuitively and always.
Adopting love and peace has many rewards.

When pushing on and reaching towards
a heart of perfect wisdom,
just know that your heart is the Lord's.

For years now I have been led,
and thanks to the graceful Lord in my heart
there are few illusions left to shed.

I know Dante's message before it's all read,
far from my first spiritual book,
I've almost lost my head.

Christianity, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen:
There remains little I haven't read.
Love & truth are universal, Amen.

Inspired by

The Divine Comedy, Translated by John Ciardi

Zen Biology Lesson for Enlightenment

The heart pumps blood all by itself without you doing it.
The lungs breathe air all by themselves without you doing it.
The brain associates concepts with other concepts all by itself.

The mind is thinking (randomly babbling) completely on its own.

Let's look inside for just a brief minute...
How long can you keep the mind completely silent?
If you try to stop thinking, it just starts right back up again.
Words, verbalization, thoughts, thinking, and emotionalism are completely automatic.
You can't stop it by controlling it, but you can (eventually) stop it by non-judgmentally watching it.
The brain works completely by itself.
It has nothing to do with "you" doing it.
This means that you are not the doer of deeds, nor the thinker of thoughts.
The mind/body is an "it", not a "me".

The brain's thoughts and body's actions are just the result of cells doing work.

We are not the physical body/mind and its senses.
We are not the mind and its automatic rambling thoughts.

We are the still, conceptless, silent Awareness that is aware of them.
We are the Awareness that is watching the body/mind's automatic functioning.
We are the Silent Formless Observer.
We are the Life/Consciousness/Awareness that is simply aware of Itself as existing.

We have mistakenly identified ourselves as being the physical mind/body.
We have mistakenly identified ourselves with form.
It was an erroneous belief all along.

The real "you", the Silent Aware Mind, is not confined to a brain, or anything else.
It's Infinitely Everything beyond physicality.
It's the (formless) Allness of Existence.
It's No-Thing, yet Infinitely Everything.

But thinking about that won't help you realize/experience that.
You have to stop identifying with thoughts altogether to realize that.

Extreme Forgiveness & Acceptance for Enlightenment

Forgiveness is an aspect of acceptance/love/peace/truth.
Resentment is an aspect of hatred/emotionalism/negativity/falsehood.

Forgiveness brings utter peace and serenity of mind.
Resentment brings inner turmoil and suffering.

Which do you choose? And when? And how often?
It's totally up to you.

Acceptance/forgiveness means choosing to see the absolute perfection and beauty in everything.
Everything/everyone is currently operating at it's own level of awareness and/or evolution.
Everyone/everything is what it is right now because that's what it needs to learn, or un-learn.
People are what they are, and make mistakes, beause they really don't know otherwise (or they don't want to know otherwise).
If they REALLY knew otherwise, they would ALREADY be otherwise.

If there's full blown radical forgiveness/acceptance of absolutely everything, then...
there's nothing to judge,
there's nothing to discriminate against,
there's nothing to condemn,
there's nothing to criticize,
there's nothing to label,
there's nothing to describe,
there's nothing to define,
there's nothing to interpret,
there's nothing to translate,
there's nothing to suppose,
there's nothing to explain,
there's nothing to say,
there's nothing to talk about,
there's nothing to expound upon,
there's nothing to express an opinion about,
there's no thing to make into something,
there's nothing to express a belief about,
there's nothing to emotionalize about,
there's nothing to worry about,
there's nothing to fear,
there's nothing to rationalize,
there's nothing to determine,
there's nothing to hypothesize,
there's nothing to complicate,
there's nothing to solve,
there's nothing to manipulate,
there's nothing to get confused about,
there's nothing to distort,
there's nothing to change,
there's nothing to force,
there's nothing to set right,
there's nothing to fix,
there's nothing to resolve,
there's nothing to alter,
there's nothing to modify,
there's nothing to seek,
there's nothing to search for,
there's nothing to learn,
there's nothing to get,
there's nothing to lose,
there's nothing to gain,
there's nothing to do,
there's nothing to want,
there's nothing to desire,
there's nothing to obtain,
there's nothing to intellectualize,
there's nothing to conceptualize,
there's nothing to verbalize,
there's nothing to communicate,
there's nothing to babble on about,
there's nothing to say,
there's nothing to declare,
there's nothing to communicate,
there's nothing to articulate,
there's nothing to perceive,
and there's nothing to think about at all.

Man, talk about peace of mind.
That's absolute bliss.

Everything just IS, nothing more.
Existence just Is. Reality just Is. Life just Is.
Anything else is a distortion of Reality/Truth.

Who/What is a Buddha?

No individuality,
no relativity,
no duality,
no personal self,
no individual me,
no selfish mine,
no thoughts,
no mind,
no I.

Those who are free of all notions are called Buddhas.

What is Boredom?

Boredom is the neediness for something "exciting" to happen. It's the craving for drama. It's the attachment/addiction to experiencing physical sensations. It's the desire to satisfy the physical senses. It's the wantingness to satisfy animal urges, rather than spiritual peace. It's the choosing of a temporary instant gratification, over long term well-being. Boredom is the choosing of pleasure over peace, because peace is perceived as being "boring". It's the urge to DO something in hopes of finding happiness, instead of simply BEING that something (happiness).

Boredom is the inability to accept life for what it is, as it is in this very moment. Boredom is the inability to see the beauty of the world, as it is right now. It's the unwillingness to see the perfection of what's right in front of our faces. It's the faulty judgemental egoic opinion that something is "wrong" with existence. Boredom is the absence of acceptance, and the rejection of contentness. It's the neediness to change the situation because the mind refuses to be happy with what is. Boredom is the refusal of happiness in this very moment. When the mind is needy, there always has to be something more. With boredom, things always have to be different than how they already are. Boredom is intolerance and discrimination. Boredom is the absence of love.

Boredom is the anticipation of what could be, but isn't. It's the looking forward to what doesn't exist in reality. It's the indulgence in an illusionary dream of imagination, and the escaping of reality.

Boredom is a form of anxiety and stress. Boredom determines many of our erroneous actions, and is therefore the source of much of our suffering. Boredom is a psychological problem that is best to be let go of. When one lets boredom take control of them, one is never satisfied (happy/content).

Boredom is the false notion that happiness lies outside oneself. It's born from the unawareness that happiness can simply be chosen at all moments of life, despite life's circumstances. Boredom happens because of ignorance and unconsciousness. Boredom is the result of a lack of truth. Boredom is a negativity. Boredom creates problems.

Boredom is the identification with the autonomous cellular neural functioning/activities/thinkingness of the physical brain, instead of the identification with the formless spiritual awareness that silently observes the mind's automatic functioning/thinking from an "outside" perspective.

Boredom is the worry that something is being missed out on. It's the fear of doing nothing. It's the fear of silence, or more specifically, the fear of the silence of your own mind. It's the fear that one's life will come to an end if one stops thinking. It's the fear that the "me", "myself", and "I" might die. Boredom is the fear of death because the automatic thinkingness of the mind is falsely identified as being "me".

When one takes control of the mind (lets it go), instead of being controlled by it, boredom becomes non-existent, and happiness/joy/contentness/peace then becomes permanent, instead of just temporary. When one's happiness is no longer limited to only when experiencing external phenomena, one realizes that the true source of happiness is, and always has been, found and experienced within, as a choice. Happiness is an inner choice, right here, right now, and always, no matter what life's external happenings are. The outer becomes completely irrelevant as one becomes immersed in this permanent inwardly experienced happiness/joy/bliss/ecstasy. And this profoundly ineffable bliss/ecstasy/peace is far beyond any physical sensation that one could possibly imagine (and yes, that includes sex). All that one has to do is refuse the mind's activities, and choose to be it.

Boredom can't be quenched. It can only be let go of.

Biofeedback Devices

The term "biofeedback device" is usually used to describe equipment that shows in real-time, as it's happening, the physiological effects of our thoughts, emotions, attitudes, perceptions, and mental processes.

People are realizing that the use of biofeedback devices is important because an ever-growing number of doctors and scientists are coming to the conclusion that negative thoughts and emotion stress are a major underlying factor in the development of all sorts of physical diseases and health issues. It's also becoming more and more well known that the body is in a constant state of regeneration (healing), but that its ability to do that more effectively depends upon us letting go of stressful negatives in our lifestyle.

most people don't yet have an understanding of what thoughts and emotions are actually positive or negative. That might sound absurd, but when you hook a person up to a heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback device for the first time, they are nearly always in a constant state of learning. Many times it's even surprising to them at which mental processes produce stressful physiological responses.

There are many ways in which stress negatively affects our biology, physiology and cognitive abilities, and because biofeedback devices give us an instantaneous look at those negative effects, they allow us to find, and eliminate, virtually all sources of stress in our life.

Biofeedback is scientifically proven to have a powerful, positive effect on your emotional and physical well-being by teaching you to alter your brain activity, blood pressure, muscle tension, heart rate and other critical bodily functions. With the use of these clinically proven tools you can access the power of your mind to directly change your state of health, and this is all done in a completely safe manner that doesn't involve negative side effects, prescription drugs, or any other type of risky medical procedure.

Most importantly though, they help us remove the REAL root of disease (stress on the cells), instead of simply focusing on the symptoms and side effects (disease) of that stress. Disease is not the problem. The physical, emotional, and energetic sources of stress in your life are the problem.

Learn more about Biofeedback Devices.

The Mind is Everything

How your mind works determines how you live your life. It determines whether you are at conflict with the world, or at peace with it. It determines what and how you eat, how you react to all situations, what you believe you are capable of, and what your limitations are. It determines what you can and cannot do without, what you do and don't do, what you are attracted to, and what you are afraid of. It determines what you consider to be important and unimportant, what you do with your life, and what you think life is about. It determines whether you blame or forgive, hate or love, and it determines your level of inner happiness, joy, and completion.

How your mind works determines literally everything about your life, and the relationship you have with the rest of the world.

Absolutely everything is a perception (that can be changed), and absolutely everything stems from the mind. It's not what's going on "out there" in the external world that matters. It's what's going on "in here" in your mind and heart that matters. Everything has to do with the ingrained programming of your mind.

The Real "You"

This blog is not for the spiritualy timid. It's for those who are willing to start looking inwards at the workings of the ego/mind rather than focusing on external phenomena. One is not subject to negative mentalities and stress when the mind doesn't react (fight or flight) to outside phenomenon. One is not subject to the faulty workings of the ego/mind at all when one stops identifying the automatic random repetitive thoughts of the mind as being "me". The very nature of the ego/mind can be summed up in one word... DRAMA. And what is drama? It's the absence of peace (of mind).

Just like the heart or lungs, the mind is going and going all by itself. Take 5 minutes to watch the mind and see for yourself. You can't control it. You can't stop it by controlling it, but you can (eventually) stop it by simply non-judgementally watching it and taking notice of it. You are not the body and its senses. You are not the mind and its thoughts. You are the still, silent Awareness that is aware of them. Now the big question is... Do you want to wholely and completely BE that Awareness of profound peace, silence, and happiness, which is the real You? Or do you prefer and enjoy the drama and suffering created by the ego/mind? (Many people do, but that's because of the ego/mind.) Knowingly or unknowingly, this is why people practice meditation. That which you are knowingly or unknowingly seeking, is causing you to seek. It's calling you to Itself. It's calling you back Home from whence you came. Do you want to "remember" who/what you actually are?

You are ALREADY That, but it's being covered and masked by concepts, notions, thoughts, thinking, and emotions. All one needs to do is lose interest in ALL thought and thinking as it arises, and before it arises.